Irish ePassport details announced

Ireland has taken a major step towards full ePassport roll out, as it took delivery of its first ePassports containing biometric data. The new biometric passports are currently undergoing independent testing in the Netherlands. Next week, the new passports will also be tested in US State facilities in Virginia to ensure they meet US specifications.

Under the United States visa waiver programme, participating countries must move to full production of biometric passports before 26 October this year. It is estimated that Irish citizens made 500,000 visits to the US last year, making Ireland one of the top 10 countries among visitors to the country. 

The Department of Foreign Affairs estimates that the cost of introducing the Irish ePassport will be €8.8 million in 2006. The project is a partnership between the Department of Foreign Affairs and BearingPoint Ireland.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern made the announcement at the same time as introducing a series of new offences relating to travelling on a false Irish passport. The new passport legislation comes at a time when the number of Irish passports issued annually reached record volumes. Passport numbers in the first quarter of this year are 11.5% up on the same time last year. Over 680,000 passports were issued last year – 549,543 in Ireland and a further 130,000 issued by Irish diplomatic missions abroad.

As per ICAO specifications, the passport will have an embedded microchip containing the digitised facial image and personal details of the passport holder as they appear on the data page. The Government said it has no plans, at this stage, to include a citizen’s fingerprints, despite European legislation requiring fingerprints to be added by 28 February 2008.

Minister Ahern also announced that there has been an 11.5% increase in the number of passports issued in Ireland in the first quarter of 2006. In the first three months of 2006, 136,677 passports were issued by the Passport Offices in Balbriggan, Dublin and Cork. For the same period in 2005, the figure was 122,570.