The proposed introduction of national identity cards in Britain would have "significant implications" for this State, Minister for Justice Michael McDowell warned yesterday.
He said he opposed the introduction of such cards here. If they were introduced in Britain, however, then some "very significant issues" would arise, particularly for people living near the Border.
On Tuesday night the Identity Cards Bill passed its second reading in the Commons.
Mr McDowell said he had concerns about the cost of the cards, the invasion of privacy involved and the use to which the cards would be put. He was answering a question from Fine Gael deputy Jim O'Keeffe at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights.
He said if the cards were introduced in the North this would pose problems for people with living arrangements on both sides of the Border. In addition, nationalists might not want to carry a British ID card.
Also at yesterday's meeting, Mr McDowell told Independent deputy Finian McGrath that he would not withdraw his comment that many asylum seekers told "cock and bull stories" in an attempt to be allowed to stay in this State.
Of the 1,174 Nigerians who sought asylum here between May 2004 and May 2005, 88 per cent claimed to have travelled here by air but had no travel documents.
"You don't come to Britain from Nigeria with a beer mat in your breast pocket," Mr McDowell said. There were no direct flights from Nigeria to Ireland, yet people were claiming they took such flights. They could not produce their passports to back up their claims, however.
"These stories cannot be true, and we'd better face up to it . . . we are being codded".
