Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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237. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality for an update on her plans to increase airline and air carrier fines where they have been found to have not upheld their obligations by ensuring passengers have appropriate documentation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25962/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Earlier this month, I updated the Government of my intention to reform the carrier liability provisions of the Immigration Act 2003.

I will shortly bring this legislation to the Oireachtas as part of a forthcoming Miscellaneous Provisions Bill, which is planned for enactment by the Summer recess.

I am proposing to increase the fines on carriers from the current maximum of €3,000 to €5,000 if they do not comply with their obligations to ensure passengers have appropriate travel documentation.

This is one element of an overall goal to reduce the number of people presenting at ports of entry without appropriate travel documentation.

My Department has recorded a 34% reduction in 2023 in the number of persons arriving at Dublin Airport without the correct documentation. Q1 in 2024 has seen a further reduction in the numbers arriving without documentation. This is based on the work that the Department’s Border Management Unit is doing with GNIB.

The Border Management Unit (BMU) of my Department and the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) are working closely with airlines on a range of measures to ensure that passengers have such documentation when boarding. This includes delivering in-person training to relevant airline ground-handling staff on immigration requirements and false travel documentation. BMU officials are also available 24/7 to assist airlines with any immigration queries.

BMU and GNIB also have an ongoing intelligence-led programme of operations at airplanes to detect passengers who destroyed documents inflight and to identify the point of embarkation of undocumented passengers. BMU and GNIB carry out doorstop operations at airplanes to target those who destroyed documents inflight. These are intelligence led operations based on trends observed by immigration officials, who will conduct initial document checks as passengers disembark an aircraft in order to establish a person’s identity and nationality. Over 3,040 doorstep operations have been completed to end May 2024.

In addition, An Garda Síochána has prosecuted nearly 100 people in 2024 for arriving without appropriate documentation and a significant number have been imprisoned.