asked the Minister for External Affairs when he proposes to begin to issue passports to Irish citizens, and what are the reasons for the delay that has occurred?

I am answering this and other questions for the Minister for External Affairs. Passports are being prepared. Delay has been caused by certain technical difficulties which have been overcome, and it is hoped to have the passports ready within a month.

asked the Minister for External Affairs whether the necessary arrangements have been made to secure to holders of Irish passports, travelling through Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg, Switzerland and France, similar immunity from all visa formalities to that enjoyed by the holders of British passports?

Holders of passports issued by the Irish Free State will enjoy the same immunities from visa formalities as holders of passports issued by the British Foreign Office.

asked the Minister for External Affairs if he is aware that Mr. Jacob Ellis, of 87 Kenilworth Square, Rathgar, in the County of Dublin, a citizen of the Irish Free State under Article 3 of the Constitution, has been unable to get a passport to visit his family in Lithuania, and was informed that the only passports issued were British passports, and that Mr. Ellis was disentitled to such a passport, inasmuch as, though a citizen of this State, he was not also a citizen of some other co-equal State of the Commonwealth; further, to ask, if this be true, what steps a citizen of this State is required to take, so as to get a passport over and above the citizenship conferred on him by the Constitution passed and adopted by the Constituent Assembly of Saorstát Eireann and the Parliament of Great Britain and duly confirmed by the Crown?

This matter is being investigated, and if the Deputy will repeat the question in a few days' time the Minister for External Affairs will be in a position to give a definite answer.

I will put it down for Friday.