Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I welcome the Minister. I also welcome the Bill because it is a practical solution to problems we did not foresee. As Senator Mansergh said, it was not the Good Friday Agreement alone that prompted the introduction of this legislation, but clearly the Good Friday Agreement required legislation and the Minister has adopted a simple and common sense approach to this.

I will confine my contribution to my interest in this issue. I have listened to the debate today and to the Minister's words. Rather than delay matters by repeating what others have said, I will concentrate on section 10, which deals with passports for sale. The House will be aware of my interest in this and the fact that I felt so strongly about it and believed that nothing had been done to close a loophole that had been abused. The Minister has explained this very well. In the Second Stage debate on my Bill, the Minister was kind enough to give an assurance that he would address the issue in his own way in the forthcoming legislation. I thank the Minister because he has done that and has done it very efficiently and effectively.

The passports for sale link was the reference in the 1956 legislation to "Irish associations", to which the Minister referred. It is a reminder to Members of this and the other House of our responsibility as legislators to examine what could go wrong with legislation. When the 1956 legislation was being debated the loophole was identified by former Deputy Moran when he gave the example that an Arab drinking Irish whiskey in Cairo could claim to have an Irish association. Another Deputy gave the example that an Asian playing in an Irish band in New York could claim to have Irish associations. The loophole was identified in these Houses and yet the legislation was passed. There is, therefore, an onus of responsibility on us to identify possible loopholes. It should give us pause to recall that such doubts were not listened to on a previous occasion. It should serve as a reminder to us of what can go wrong.

In 1956, the then Minister explained that "Irish associations" covered three things: first, aliens who may join the Defence Forces, second, aliens who while normally resident in Ireland for prolonged periods may not have a full year's continuous residence here prior to application or, third, aliens who join Irish religious orders with the intention of going abroad permanently as missionaries when ordained but who remain under the direction of the Irish branch of the order. That was the intention of the term "Irish associations" and the Minister of the day insisted that the best way to handle these was by using this term. However, it took 30 years or so to reveal that this created a loophole. The way things turned out should give us pause for thought in the future when we do our daily job here of scrutinising legislation.

The passports for sale scheme came into being as a result of that loophole and continued under successive governments for nearly a decade until it was finally closed in 1998. Since then the Government has given an assurance that it would not reintroduce such a scheme, but until now the loophole that permitted the abuse to take place has been left on the Statute Book. In campaigning for the loophole to be closed off, I was not seeking to tie the hands of future parliamentarians. I wanted to ensure that any future scheme would be subject to the full rigour of scrutiny and of law. If any future government wants to introduce another passports for sale scheme it will have to amend the law the Minister has introduced here today. That will ensure that the matter will be properly discussed and not introduced by stealth as happened previously.

I have much pleasure in supporting the Bill. I thank the Minister for his efforts in this area and for the manner in which he has introduced the legislation and put it together because it is easier to understand, although getting to grips with it has been convoluted. I congratulate the Minister on the Bill.