UK and Ireland to share ‘unprecedented’ level of information

Unprecedented amounts of information will be shared by Irish and UK immigration authorities to help prevent a new joint visa deal being exploited by terrorists or illegal immigrants.

The historic agreement between the Irish and British governments was signed in the Irish Embassy in London yesterday by Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald and British home secretary Theresa May.

Under the deal, foreign tourists and business people will be able visit both countries on a visa issued by one of them.

Ms Fitzgerald said that the new rules required “unparalleled co-operation” between Dublin and London. “It would not have seemed possible just a few years back,” she said.

The visas will be available to Chinese visitors from the end of the month and to people from India by the end of the year or early in 2015. The scheme will be expanded next year to cover other countries.

In the first half of this year the British issued 390,000 visas to Chinese visitors, up 22 per cent on last year, while the number given to people from India grew by 1 per cent to 397,000. It is hoped the deal will encourage some visitors from these countries to visit Ireland as part of a UK trip.

‘Hassle’

The deal will make both countries more attractive for visitors, said Ms May, since it will get rid of “the hassle” of needing three visas to cover entry to Britain, Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Immigration co-operation has expanded significantly in recent years. In the year to June 2013, 5,000 Nigerians applying for Irish visas were finger-printed, for example.

Following checks with the UK authorities, it emerged that over half had previously applied for a UK visa, while one in eight had “a negative UK immigration history”.

Since April 2013, all Irish visa applications have been checked against watch-lists kept by the British border authorities with the help of intelligence agencies.

In future, an “unprecedented” level of information about passengers on flights or ferries to Ireland or the UK will be shared, the home secretary said.

Ms May said, “it sounds a simple thing to do” but data protection rules had to be respected in both countries, while immigration IT systems had to be able to share intelligence.

“An awful lot of time has gone into that,” she said, adding that the public in both countries could be assured that measures were in place “to ensure that those who are coming to visit are coming to visit”.