Files on passports sought

The Labour Party leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, has asked the Department of Justice for copies of all records used to assist the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, before he made a Dail statement on the passports-for-investment issue last week.

Mr Quinn, who made the written application under the Freedom of Information Act, said he believed it would force the publication of an internal departmental report on the passports scheme, commissioned last year.

The Department has four weeks in which to deal with his request, which relates to a statement the Minister made in reply to Fine Gael's Jim O'Keeffe TD on June 5th.

Mr O'Keeffe had called on him to publish a departmental review of the passports scheme. But Mr O'Donoghue said Mr O'Keeffe should check with his party leader, Mr John Bruton, and the deputy leader, Mrs Nora Owen, before making such a demand. In his letter to the Department, Mr Quinn cited a clause in the Freedom of Information Act which states that documents created before the Act came into being on April 21st should be made available if they are "necessary or expedient" to understanding documents created later.