John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. As I said, when we are reading any European legislation, we wonder what it actually means. This came in on 30 November 1994. How many students in a second level school in Ireland had a non-Irish passport at that time? The number would have been much lower in 1994 than it is in 2023. It is much more prevalent and important today.

I thank the Minister of State for what he has agreed to do. He has agreed to ensure that every secondary school in Ireland, all 760 of them, are fully aware that no visas are required within the EU when on an educational trip. That would cut down on a lot of stress and anxiety. Perhaps the Minister and Department of Foreign Affairs should make sure that every embassy knows this is part of a European declaration from 1994 and that it is not acceptable for some European embassies in this country to decide they will not listen to that and instead ignore it. I will not mention them, but we have to ask whether it is a case of a lack of knowledge to enforce this. We need to remind embassies that students in this country are allowed to go abroad regardless of whether they have an Irish passport.