Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality his plans to enter into the Schengen agreement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52900/12]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Schengen Convention is an agreement among European States which allows for the abolition of systematic border controls between participating States. It also includes provisions for the development of enhanced cooperation in relation to law enforcement matters and judicial cooperation.

There are currently 25 fully participating States comprising all EU Member States with the exception of Ireland, the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria and three non-EU States: Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. Border posts have been removed between Schengen area States and a common Schengen visa allows tourist or visitor access to the area.

The Schengen agreement was incorporated into the framework of the European Union under the Treaty of Amsterdam. The relevant Protocol recognised the fact that Ireland and the United Kingdom are not parties to the Schengen agreement and made provision to allow those Member States to accept some or all of its provisions at any time.

Ireland has successfully applied to take part in certain elements of the Schengen agreement. The activities which Ireland has applied to participate include police cooperation, mutual assistance in criminal matters, extradition and drugs co-operation. Ireland also applied to participate in related aspects of the Schengen Information System - a European search database which assists Member State authorities in carrying out border checks and police and customs checks.

Ireland's application to participate in these specified articles of the agreement was approved by Council Decision in 2002. In accordance with this Council Decision, these provisions will come into effect only after a range of technical and legislative measures have been put in place and successfully evaluated by the Council. The measures which will enable Ireland to meet its Schengen requirements are currently being progressed.

Ireland has not, however, applied to participate in the Schengen arrangements to the extent that they deal with the abolition of border checks. This decision has been taken to maintain the common travel area (CTA) with the United Kingdom which remains a priority for Ireland. The reality is that the common travel area could not continue to operate if Ireland were to remove border checks with Schengen States generally while the United Kingdom did not do so. To do so would result in a situation where the land border with Northern Ireland would become the border between the Schengen area and the United Kingdom. In such circumstances, land border controls would appear inevitable and this is obviously something that no Irish Government would seriously contemplate bringing about.

The Government's focus instead is on doing what it can to maximise the potential of the Common Travel Area as evidenced by the CTA visa waiver programme already introduced and ongoing talks with our UK colleagues on the possibility of a common CTA visa.