Passenger information regulation
Senator Higgins moved to defer No. 2, saying the advance passenger information regulation needs more detail and safeguards. After clarification from the Chair and support from Senator Ruane, she stressed it should not become a tool for routine migration screening; the Chair allowed the amendment to be put to the House.
I propose an amendment to the Order of Business that the motion on a proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament on the collection and transfer of advance passenger information, requiring approval by the House, not be taken today but on a future date. We need a little more information. This is a regulation that states it is for the sharing of passenger information in advance-----
Comment on this
I am happy for it to be taken but I am looking for further information.
Comment on this
Of course, nobody wants to obstruct the sharing of information relating to the investigation and prosecution of serious crimes or terrorist offences, but it would be useful to have more information and guarantees on how this regulation will be used. I would like a briefing from the Government clarifying that it will not become a mechanism used solely to screen or limit intra-EU migration but would only be used in an active situation whereby we are searching for persons who are a danger rather than screening people on an ad hoc basis.
I say that in the context of a report published by the Dublin Inquirer this week, which showed that a large number of Bolivian citizens, who are entitled to travel to Ireland under our visa rules, are being blocked by airlines from boarding planes to Dublin because those airlines fear they are about to be fined by the Garda National Immigration Bureau. Indeed, that bureau has fined a number of airlines up to €3,000 in respect of certain passengers. We have had situations where people from particular countries seem to be getting screened. That has been highlighted as an outsourcing and less accountable form of immigration control. We need to ensure we have best practice for immigration control and it is not something that gets outsourced to airline officials who have no qualifications or accountability for it.
I call for the publication of the abortion review. I note that the Irish Family Planning Association, IFPA, has today published, as part of its research, that the three-day wait is not having any impact on decisions but is causing stress. I ask for that review to be published and for a debate in this House on it.