MINISTER FOR JUSTICE & EQUALITY ANNOUNCES NEW PROCEDURES FOR PASSENGERS TRAVELLING FROM OUTSIDE EU

28 Oct 2011

The Minister for Justice and Equality, Mr Alan Shatter T.D has signed into Irish law an EU Directive requiring air carriers to provide advance passenger data to Irish immigration authorities for the purpose of 'combating illegal immigration'.

The personal data will be taken from the machine readable zone of the passengers passport when the passenger is checking in and the information is then forwarded to the authorities in Ireland after completion of check in.

A prototype system to test and refine the system will be introduced on a pilot phase before the end of 2011.

The Regulation provides for the passenger data to be deleted within 24hours of the arrival of the flight in Ireland or in the case of a 'person of concern' up to 3 years or until he or she is no longer considered a 'person of concern'.