Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is not the first time I have raised this issue. I am asking that we put an accommodation in our passports to allow those whose names differ from those of their children not to be delayed at passport checks here or abroad and to make it easy to identify that children travelling with an adult are lawfully travelling with him or her, are his or her children or whatever the case may be. This is about flexibility. The issues raised about this issue previously concerned the general data protection regulation, GDPR, which does not really apply because passports contain sensitive personal data in any event. I am asking not for a mandatory provision in a passport but rather an accommodation and flexibility that would allow people to avail of it if is something they need or that suits them. I do not think the GPDR is an issue.

The other answer I received previously was that this is not part of the normal format of a passport but what I am talking about here is not something that would go into the dictated page - the photographed page of a passport that is standard across Europe and presumably most of the world - but rather something that would accommodate that. We have a passport that is beautifully designed. It is a source of enormous pride for Irish people as they hold their passport not just because it is by any metric one of the most valuable and respected passports in the world but also because of the design of the pages themselves. The images on them reflect the depth of the culture we associate with Ireland and Irish people abroad.

Ironically enough, I was in the Passport Office yesterday helping a constituent with a passport issue. It has put images of many old passports on the walls. There was a Free State passport from a lady from the late 1920s. Her children's names were listed on that passport. I also know that in the past, people could put their children on their passport and that was the document they used to travel. I recognise the security issues with that. Again, I am not saying this would be the only travel document for children but several people have contacted me from my local area, particularly women, and in the week of International Women's Day, which is tomorrow, it is appropriate that we would raise this issue. It involves women travelling who have a different name to that of their children, for example, if a woman's name is Murphy but her children have their father's name, which is Byrne. If they go to passport control, not unreasonably, the officer there wants to establish that the children travelling with this woman are her children or are lawfully entitled to travel with her. Those women have to carry the birth certificates of their children with them to identify the children as being their own and it is really cumbersome. I am asking that there be a page opposite the photograph page of the passport, which contains the important identification data about the passport holder, where this information could be contained. The names of the parents could be listed on the child's passport or the children's names on the parents' passports so there is an easy and official way to help border control officials identify children travelling with an adult.

It is done on Irish passports in other spheres. For example, the spouse of an Irish diplomat have a diplomatic passport and information that he or she is the spouse of the ambassador or the first secretary will be listed opposite the photograph page. Diplomatic passports held by Oireachtas Members have information opposite the photograph setting out why they have a diplomatic passport. In my case, it is because I am a Senator and in the case of the Minister of State, it will because he is a Deputy so there is a way this can be done. It will help women, people whose names differ from those of their children and people in same-sex relationships with children. A number of people will benefit from this. What I am talking about is just putting in place an accommodation and modifying the passport not in a way that takes it out of international norms or security requirements that are reasonably there and that we must respect but in a way that accommodates our citizens as they travel across the world. It is something we can do to make Irish citizens' lives easier.