Madam, - Almost every week I travel to Ireland from the UK and, as described by Robert Walter MP (October 25th), I am asked for my passport or driving licence. This never happens when travelling in the opposite direction. When I explain and show that I have arrived from the Common Travel Area, I am met by a variety of responses, ranging from a welcoming cúpla focal to further facile questioning as to my identity.
I have sought clarification on the law and/or regulations in this matter from immigration officials in Dublin Airport, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Justice. None has offered any clarification, other than some officials saying that they need to satisfy themselves that I am Irish - surprisingly, not that I am from the EU. After 85 years of the Common Travel Area, it should not be beyond the competence of the Department of Justice to draft regulations so that immigration officials are aware of what it is that they are trying to enforce.
The other common travel area within Europe is the Schengen area. Governed by the EU's Schengen acquis, this allows for travel without passports within 13 countries in the EU (being the members of the EU before the 2004 enlargement, excluding the UK and Ireland) and soon to include the 10 nations which joined the EU in 2004. The Schengen acquis also applies to non-EU members Norway and Iceland and I understand it will shortly apply to Switzerland and Liechtenstein. In total, there will be 27 countries fully implementing the agreement.
In practice, the effect of Schengen is that there is a separate arrivals area in air terminals and ports for people travelling within the Schengen area. Arrivals from Schengen areas do not need to show passports in the same way that passengers from Ireland do not need to show passports when arriving in the UK.
Ireland has signed up to some of the benefits of Schengen relating to police co-operation, but not to free passage. The reason given was that we had a Common Travel Area with Britain, which had decided not to join.
The reality is that, de facto, there is no common travel area between Britain and Ireland and travellers departing from or arriving in Ireland to almost all of Europe are further inconvenienced by not being part of the Schengen area.
It is time for Ireland fully and properly to implement the Schengen acquis in our ports and air terminals as every continental European airport currently manages to do. It should not be too difficult to have a special channel for non-Schengen arrivals with full passport control. In this way we would not have the existing fiction of a common travel area but rather we would have equality with 430 million other Europeans. It would also mean one less queue to endure in Dublin Airport. - Yours, etc,
BRIAN McGIRR, Vernon Avenue, Dublin 3.
Madam, - The British proposal to end the Common Travel Area between Ireland and the UK marks a low point in relations with our neighbour. It is a step backwards, politically, diplomatically and historically.
Like many Irish people I have family in Britain and have always valued the fact that there was no need for passports between our countries, even at the height of the IRA terror campaign there. Now, in times of peace and in light of the huge progress made in the North, I think this change is a slight to the good relations between our nations. We should not forget that Ireland and the UK have more in common with each other than we do with any other nation on earth.
It is more than ironic that as the European Union seeks to build a closer-knit Europe, with freedom of travel for all, the UK is placing a new obstacle between our two nations. - Yours, etc,
Cllr KEITH MARTIN, Westport, Co Mayo.