Plans have been unveiled for new electronic border controls which will result in the travel details of all air and sea passengers to and from the State being entered into a centralised database and monitored by gardaí.
All airlines and ferry companies will be required to forward passenger itineraries to a new Irish borders operation centre, (I-Boc), according to details outlined yesterday by Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan. While plans to develop an e-border control system between Ireland and the UK emerged last month, the wide scope of the Irish project has not been known before now.
Mr Lenihan said the new logging system would include "watch lists" of persons of interest. Any time such individuals booked an air or sea journey to or from the State, gardaí would be alerted to their travel plans.
This would enable the authorities here to "intercept, question, stop or arrest" the people involved, the Minister told Labour spokesman on justice Pat Rabbitte, in a written Dáil reply.
A project development team which will formulate the new e-border plans has already been put in place. It is chaired by the joint Department of Justice and Garda Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS).
The team is made up of members of a number of agencies including Garda, Revenue, and Government departments. A memorandum containing detailed proposals is expected to be ready for Government early next year. The system will work in the same way as an e-borders plan currently being finalised by the British.
Passenger information will be collected by all carriers and sent to I-Boc. It will then be screened against "watch lists" of persons that gardaí or other agencies believe are engaging in crime, social welfare fraud or immigration offences. The project will begin with a number of long-haul air routes, increasing over two years as more air and sea routes are added.
By the end of the two-year period, all passenger movements between the Republic and countries other than the UK - amounting to 15 million a year at present - will be in the database.
A similar system for the Common Travel Area between Ireland and Britain will be considered when the first phase of the wider project is being rolled out. Passenger movements between the Republic and Northern Ireland will not be affected.
Mr Lenihan said the watch lists will combat terrorism, identify the movements of those engaged in serious crime, strengthen border controls and help collect data on immigration trends. Senior Garda sources said they have long been concerned about the ease with which criminals can leave the Republic undetected, particularly by ferry to the UK.
Many travel on to countries such as Spain and the Netherlands where drug shipments bound for the Republic are agreed and paid for. Gardaí and social welfare officials are also concerned at the level of social welfare fraud being facilitated by lax border controls.