Minister refuses passport intermediary information

THE Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, has refused to give any information about Mr Brian O'Carroll's involvement in the passports-for-sale scheme.

Mr O'Carroll was the Fianna Fail supporter who arranged for a passport investor, Mr Gerry Lindzon, to make an interest-free loan to a Fianna Fail account in the names of Mr Albert Reynolds and Mr Bertie Ahern in 1993.

A Dail question from Fine Gael's Mr Jim O'Keeffe asking the Minister if any other donation or interest-free loan was made to Fianna Fail by, or on behalf of, any applicant or recipient of a passport was disallowed on Thursday. The Ceann Comhairle, Mr Seamus Pattison, ruled that the Minister had no responsibility to the Dail in relation to the matter.

On another question from Mr O'Keeffe asking the number of occasions on which Mr O'Carroll had acted as intermediary between the Department of Justice and foreign investors on the passport-for-investment scheme, Mr O'Donoghue responded:

"In principle, I do not consider it appropriate to furnish information about which adviser, agent or legal practitioner has acted for individuals in immigration, asylum or citizenship matters."

In any event, the Minister added, all of the files were with the Moriarty tribunal.

Mr O'Donoghue also said "the person in question" was never engaged, retained or requested by his Department to act as an intermediary. "My information is that any involvement he may have had with the investment-based naturalisation scheme was solely on behalf of applicants or prospective recipient companies."

Information in the possession of The Irish Times shows that Mr O'Carroll acted as an intermediary for at least eight passport investors, including the Masris, who invested in Mr Reynolds's family company, C and D Foods.