Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin will seek clarification tomorrow from the Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, on reports of Israeli involvement in the theft of Irish passport numbers by the killers of a Hamas leader in the United Arab Emirates.
Mr Martin has arranged to meet Mr Lieberman in Brussels tomorrow when he travels there to meet European Union foreign ministers who are meeting in the Belgian capital and Mr Martin will use the opportunity to seek clarification of the issuing regarding the use of Irish passports.
Police in the UAE capital Dubai believe that 11 "agents with European passports" were involved in the killing of Palestinian miltant, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh and that up to five Irish passports with real numbers but false names and photographs were used by those behind the assassination.
Speaking in Cork at the weekend, Mr Martin told The Irish Times he planned to raise the issue with his colleagues at the meeting of foreign ministers and that he would then discuss the matter in a meeting that he is having with Mr Lieberman.
"This is very serious because we know that information from five Irish passports were, in essence, stolen and used in forged passports - we've contacted four of the five people and they all live in Ireland - in our case, it's just the numbers , not the names and photographs which were used.
"In the British case, their entire identities were stolen and likewise in France and Germany, although not in the same volume, but the same principle of violation of European passports clearly merits discussion among European foreign ministers and to declare again that this is unacceptable."
Mr Martin said it had been reported that the Dubai chief of police was "99 per cent certain" that the Israeli secret service, Mossad was suspected of being behind the assassination of Mr al-Mabhoub and he hoped to hear what the Israeli view on this was from Mr Lieberman.
Mr Martin said it was a very serious matter that Irish passports were used by those behind the killing not just in terms of the security of the individuals whose passport numbers were used but because it compromised the integrity of the entire Irish passport system with repercussion for all Irish citizens.
He said Ireland had enjoyed a good reputation internationally in terms of our passport control and the government had invested hugely since 2005 in the creation of an automatic passport system, whereby Irish passports now contained biometric and other details in a microchip.
