Written answers

Thursday, 10 October 2013

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Passport Service Issues

Photo of Andrew DoyleAndrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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48. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his views on the main features on the new passports that were introduced on 3 October 2013; if they contain any new security features; if he has notified other EU member states and the rest of international immigration authorities of the changes to the new Irish passports; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42861/13]

Photo of Eamon GilmoreEamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Last week I launched a new Irish passport. The passport combines the latest security technology with selected imagery in order to produce a passport which represents Ireland, our culture, our history, and our people. The book includes original artwork and photographs which were commissioned solely for use on the Irish passport. For security design reasons images were selected which could be printed across consecutive pages. These include images such as the Cliffs of Moher, the Rock of Cashel and the Samuel Beckett bridge, poetry in Irish, English and Ulster-Scots and representations of Irish sports - Gaelic games, horse-racing and fishing. The security features also have a uniquely Irish flavour. For instance on the inside cover a highly secure feature used is “spark”. Its iteration on the passport book uses the Brú na Boinne stone as inspiration and has a moving image emerging when the view-angle is changed on the Newgrange stone. Another security feature used throughout the book in the form of ogham characters is thermochromic ink, which shifts colour when heat is applied to it. Each ogham letter also represents a tree and on each page the corresponding leaf to the Ogham on that page can be seen under ultra violet light. Immigration authorities worldwide have been notified of the new features on the passport through our Embassy network and an information pack detailing over 50 security features on the book has also been distributed to border agencies.

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