Passport Needed Soon For Great Britain

Irish citizens will need a passport to travel between the Republic and Great Britain, according to a report.

The Common Travel Area between Ireland and Britain, which had been in place since the foundation of the State in 1922, is expected to come to an end in 2009, because of plans by the British government to put an electronic border control system in place.

This means that anyone travelling by air or sea from Ireland to Britain will need to have a passport so that information about their travel plans and movements will be available to both British and Irish authorities.

The establishment of the system is being put in place in order to enable the government to track the movements of suspected terrorists, criminals and illegal immigrants.

According to a report in today's edition of the 'Irish Times', the Irish government has instructed senior officials to prepare a plan to deal with the ending of the Common Travel Area. The report said that the Irish system is expected to be "broadly similar" to the British one.

The Home Office said on Wednesday that it had "no immediate plans" to establish passports checks on people travelling from Ireland to Britain.

However, speaking in the Dáil on Wednesday, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said that Ireland should follow the UK in establishing electronic border controls.

However, the report said that Britain is not expected to apply the new arrangements to the land border between the Republic and Northern Ireland, because it would be too difficult to police.

(KMcA)