Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I second Senator Mullen's call for an amendment to the Order of Business. I have two issues with regard to passports which I ask the Leader to draw to the attention of the Minister for Foreign Affairs so he can work on them over the coming months. The first relates to a Czech-born fugitive in the United States who holds an Irish passport that he purchased here ten or 15 years ago. We have passed legislation to make sure this will never happen again, but apparently the Government has examined, as far as I can see, without any great vigour or determination, the possibility of removing the fugitive's passport. This man has been accused of bribery in the United States and is claiming that because he has Irish citizenship the law does not apply to him. We should have some procedure for withdrawing Irish passports from people who purchased them during those days. I do not believe we are pursuing these efforts with sufficient vigour. We must ensure that those of us who travel with Irish passports are regarded as genuine. The danger is that if these passports are being used in such a way, every time we go through immigration when entering another country its officials will look upon our passports with disdain.

The British had planned to do away with the common travel area and, as far as I gather, one now needs a passport, or certainly photographic identification, to travel from Northern Ireland to the island of Britain. If that is so, it is good news because it gives us the opportunity to break the common travel area between Ireland and Britain and join the Schengen countries. Ireland and Britain are the only two of the 27 member states which are not part of the Schengen area. Irish people would be able to move through the same passport and emigration control points used by citizens of the other 25 member states if Ireland were part of the Schengen area. The fact that the British Government decided to remove the common travel area between Ireland and Britain is extremely good news. The fact that the measure was not passed by the House of Lords last night is merely a stumbling block on the road. Ireland should be part of the Schengen area.