Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the position regarding the common travel area (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16442/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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There is no requirement for citizens of either jurisdiction to carry passports when travelling within the Common Travel Area (CTA). However, it is the case that airline carriers in many instances require their passengers to have a passport in possession before allowing them to board aircraft. As such, this is not an immigration requirement. Unlike the operational practices at some UK airports, there is generally no segregation of arriving passengers at Irish ports of entry to the State. Consequently, Immigration Officers performing immigration control duties at airports in the State do not know where passengers have travelled from when such passengers present at immigration control desks. It is, therefore, necessary for Immigration Officers to establish where passengers have arrived from, and in order to do this, an Immigration Officer may ask passengers questions with a view to establishing their nationality and port of embarkation. Once satisfied that a person is a citizen of the Common Travel Area (CTA) and that such person has travelled from the United Kingdom, the Immigration Officer will make no further requirement of that person.

In circumstances like the one outlined by the Deputy, where a person, who is a national of the jurisdictions that form the Common Travel Area, and who is continually travelling between ports within the CTA, an Immigration Officer, in compliance with their duties under immigration legislation, is duty-bound to ask questions designed to establish that the person is a national of the jurisdictions that form the CTA and has travelled from within the CTA and as such is entitled to benefit from its immigration arrangements.

For the sake of completeness, I should add that border entry practices in the UK for CTA arrivals vary considerably from place to place. For example, in some UK regional airports, police officers on occasion seek identity documents for passengers from this jurisdiction. In other cases, evidence of having boarded an aircraft in Ireland is sought, whereas, at Heathrow Terminal 1 there is a dedicated CTA channel for arriving passengers which the obviates the need for the production of identity documents. However, it remains at the discretion of the UK immigration authorities to request passengers to produce such documentation as required.

In recent years, personnel at the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) and in the UK immigration authorities have detected abuses within the Common Travel Area. Movements of illegal persons, suspected human trafficking, illegal immigration and substantial levels of social welfare fraud are among the consequences of such abuse. The cooperation of all passengers arriving in the State, including Irish and UK citizens who have travelled from the UK, greatly enhances the ability of Immigration personnel, both here and in the UK, to prevent and detect illegal immigration and associated criminality.

It should be noted that in fulfilling their duties at the frontiers of the State members of An Garda Síochána utilise a range of legislative provisions. In particular, such officers will, where necessary, enforce the provisions at section 33 of Air Navigation & Transport Act, 1988, which states, an authorised officer, in the interest of the proper operation or the security or safety of an aerodrome, or the security or safety of persons, aircraft or other property thereon, may require any person on an aerodrome to: (i) give his name and address and to produce other evidence of his / her identity; (ii) state the purpose of his being on the aerodrome; (iii) account for any baggage or other property which may be in his possession.