Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 310: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the reporting arrangements for recording details of passports that have been lost or stolen; the action being taken to use those details to prevent lost or stolen passports from being used for illegal purposes; if he is satisfied with the existing procedures; if new initiatives are planned in view of the recent events where Irish passports have allegedly been used in criminal activity; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10330/10]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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My Department takes very seriously the possible misuse of lost or stolen Irish passports and urges passport holders to keep their passport in a secure place and exercise care and vigilance over its use.

Since 1 October, 2009 the Department increased the frequency of its reporting of the serial numbers of all lost/mislaid or stolen passports to Interpol through An Garda Síochána, to daily reports. This information is then made available immediately to police forces worldwide in the Interpol database to protect against the fraudulent use of these Irish passports.

The holders of lost/mislaid or stolen passports are advised not to use them again for any travel if they are subsequently recovered. When completing the statement of loss as part of their new passport application, applicants undertake not to travel on a missing passport if subsequently found. However, a number of individuals either unknowingly or mistakenly use their previously reported lost or stolen passports. This may account for the following numbers of Irish citizens who were delayed at international border control: 2008 - 87 2009 - 126

There has been increase in these incidents due to in part to heightened security at international ports and airports and an increase in the number of border stations worldwide that are electronically reading passports.

In each of the cases above, the Passport Office has received a request from Interpol to verify the identity of the travellers. The Passport Office has been able to resolve these cases after checks of the relevant passport details against its own database were carried out.

The documents used by the suspects in a recent murder in Dubai were not lost or stolen Irish passports but rather counterfeit copies of an old version of the passport that is no longer issued and is currently being phased out of use. In 2005 the Department introduced the new APS version of the Irish passport which is one of the most modern and secure travel documents in the world.

The introduction of the biometric or e-Passport on 16 October, 2006 further enhanced the security features of the Irish passport. The microchip in the passport contains a digital image of the holder which cannot be altered. Any attempt to alter the data on the microchip will be apparent when the passport is read at a border control station because of the added security on our chip. Border control authorities can be assured that the document is genuine and unaltered.

To complement the major technical advance which the APS passport represented, new legislation was enacted in 2008. The Passports Act 2008 introduced a series of new offences relating to the misuse of passports and passport fraud.