Only one confirmed case of fake Irish passports in 10 years - Kenneally

Only one confirmed case of forged Irish passports have been brought to the State’s attention in the last ten years, Waterford Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Kenneally has learned. In a reply to a Parliamentary Question on the matter, the Department of Foreign Affairs indicated that the passports used in the Dubai assassination earlier this year were the only case, although they were also investigating claims that one of the Russian spies deported from the United States last week may also have used a false Irish passport.

The Department also revealed that the forged passport was of a type produced before the current Automatic Passport System (APS) was introduced in 2005 and did not employ the same security features.

“Some of the commentary had suggested that Irish passports were prime for forging and an easy target, so it is a relief to hear that there are only two possible cases that the State has been made aware of,” said Deputy Kenneally. “There is still some concern that the pre 2005 passports might not meet the top security requirements, however these will be phased out over the next few years.”

“Hopefully the Gardaí will be able to gather more information about how these fake Irish passports were produced and I would encourage the Department of Foreign Affairs to contact Interpol, the FBI and other legal agencies around the world to see if they have come across any other suspected fake Irish passports and if they believe this could be an issue.

“We don’t want Irish citizens being held up at ports around the world because of passport security issues. We want to have our passports recognised as meeting the very highest standards,” Deputy Kenneally concluded.