Committee Reports > List of Committees > Dáil > 1990 > Committee of Public Accounts > Final Report - Appropriation Accounts 1988

APPENDIX 37

Report submitted at the request of the Public Accounts Committee on Irregularities at the Passport Office of the Irish Embassy in London, uncovered in 1987

SUMMARY

1. Following reports in the British news media in April 1987, an investigation was undertaken of alleged passport irregularities in the Embassy in London.

2. This revealed that

(a)Irish passports had been issued improperly to persons who were not Irish citizens but who represented themselves as such, either:—

(i)on the basis of post-nuptial declarations which they were not entitled to make within the terms of Section 8 of the 1956 Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act or

(ii)on the basis of entries in the Foreign Births Entry Book at the Embassy which were not warranted under the terms of Sections 6, 7 and 27 of the 1956 Act.

(b)There was, however, no evidence of financial irregularity in the sense of misappropriation or diversion of official funds. All fees, including fees for passports improperly issued, had been collected, recorded and lodged to the official account.

3. Criminal proceedings were taken against the official who had been in charge of the Passport Office at the Embassy at the time in question. He was extradited to Britain in 1989, stood trial and was sentenced to a term of imprisonment which he has now served.

4. Following detailed investigation of individual passport files by the Department in conjunction with the Gardaí, a number of passports improperly issued were recovered and cancelled. Investigation is still continuing in other cases.

5. Improved procedures have been introduced for the processing and control of the issue of passports with the aim of eliminating as far as possible, abuses such as those which occurred in this case. At the legislative level, the provisions of the 1956 Act in relation to post-nuptial declarations of citizenship had already been amended and tightened by the 1986 Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act which came into effect shortly before the abuses (which took place under the provisions of the earlier Act) came to light.

6. While it is difficult to eliminate entirely the possibility of fraud and abuse of trust in matters of this kind, the Department believes that the improved procedures now in operation and the legislative changes which have been made, offer substantial assurance that such abuses will not take place in future and that the integrity and high standing of the Irish passport will be maintained.

DETAILS

Allegations

1. In April 1987, reports in the British news media alleged that there had been irregularities in the issuing of passports at the Passport Office of the Irish Embassy in London.

Investigation

2. On the instructions of the Tánaiste, who was then the Minister for Foreign Affairs, an immediate investigation into the operation of the Passport Office at the Embassy was carried out by officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs, under the direction of the Assistant Secretary in charge of Administration in the Department, working with the help of senior Garda officers who travelled to London with him for the purpose.

3. Separately from this investigation, the Taoiseach directed that Mr. Kevin Murphy, Secretary for Public Service Management and Development in the Department of Finance, should undertake a general examination of the procedures and controls in operation in the Department of Foreign Affairs in relation to security; the issue of passports; and to all other activities where strict controls are necessary in the national interest. Mr. Murphy visited the Embassy in London to look into procedures there, as well as holding discussions with officials of the Department in Dublin and reported to the Taoiseach on his examination in June 1987.

4. The detailed investigation undertaken showed that a number of Irish passports had been improperly issued by the Passport Office of the Embassy over a period of several years. This had occurred in cases of two kinds:—

(1)Cases where the passport application followed a post-nuptial declaration of Irish citizenship under Section 8 of the 1956 Act by a person not qualified to make such a declaration under the terms of the Act, and

(2)Cases where the passport application was made on the basis of registration of the applicant’s birth in the Foreign Births Entry Book at the Embassy but where the person concerned was not entitled to have his/her birth so registered.

These are explained further below.

(1) Post-nuptial Declaration of Citizenship

5. The effect of Section 8 of the 1956 Act, the text of which appears in Annex I, was that a woman who was not an Irish citizen was entitled to obtain Irish citizenship on her marriage to an Irish citizen if she lodged a statutory declaration and supporting documentation. She would then, like any other Irish citizen, be entitled to an Irish passport. (Note: the relevant section of the 1956 Act has since been amended by the 1986 Act — see para. 15 below).

6. Investigation showed that in a number of cases over a period of time, women who were not Irish citizens had been permitted to make post-nuptial declarations of citizenship, and had subsequently been issued with Irish passports based on these declarations, although they had not met the necessary conditions since they had not contracted valid marriages with Irish citizens. Frequently, in such cases the Embassy file had been annotated to the effect that documentation attesting to a valid marriage with an Irish citizen had been duly shown to the Head of the Passport Office at the Embassy and returned to the applicant (in accordance with the normal practice). There was reason to believe that, in respect of these cases, sums of money had been paid directly to the officer in question over and above the normal passport fee. The normal fee in all such cases, however, appeared to have been duly and correctly lodged to the official account.

7. A thorough and detailed examination of all papers relating to citizenship applications at the Embassy indicated that up to 170 cases required further detailed individual investigation because of the possibility that irregularities of this kind could have occurred. The names of all of these persons were immediately placed on the Department’s passport stop-list and investigation was begun of individual cases in conjunction with the Gardaí. Investigations are currently in progress in 71 of these cases. In 40 cases, the passports which were issued have been retrieved and they are being held pending completion of the individual investigations.

(2) Foreign Births Entry Book Registration

8. The main effect of Sections 6, 7 and 27 of the 1956 Act, the texts of which appear in Annex 2, is that a person who can show that one of his/her four grandparents was born in Ireland, and was an Irish citizen, is entitled to have his/her own birth registered in the Foreign Births Entry Book held in any Irish diplomatic mission or consular office or in the Foreign Births Register held in the Department. Once such an entry has been validly made, the person in question, having exercised his/her entitlement to take up Irish citizenship, is entitled to apply for and to obtain an Irish passport like any other Irish citizen.

9. On investigation it appeared that a certain number of entries had been made in the Foreign Births Entry Book in the London Embassy in respect of people who were not entitled to have such entries made under the terms of the Act; and that Irish passports had subsequently been issued to them. There were 12 irregularities of this kind. All of the passports issued improperly in such cases have been recovered and the entries cancelled.

Court Proceedings

10. In July 1987, following consultations with the British authorities, court proceedings were issued in Britain against Mr. Kevin McDonald, who had been Passport Officer at the Irish Embassy in London at the time in question. Mr. McDonald at this point was not within British or Irish jurisdiction. Subsequently when he returned to Ireland from the United States (in September 1987), proceedings were initiated here with a view of his extradition to Britain.

11. Mr. McDonald contested his extradition. Following a decision of the Supreme Court in April 1989, however, he was extradited to Britain to stand trial.

12. The trial of Mr. McDonald took place in London in September, 1989. He entered a plea of guilty to a charge of conspiracy to obtain passports by fraud and was found guilty on this charge. He was sentenced to twenty-one months imprisonment but allowance was made for the time he had already spent in custody. Having received the normal remission on grounds of good behaviour, he was recently released.

OVERALL CONCLUSIONS

13. At no stage was any evidence produced or any allegation made that monies (such as citizenship and/or passport fees) intended for the State were not lodged properly to the official account or misappropriated in any way.

14. It was clear, however, that serious fraud occurred in that Irish passports had been issued to people not lawfully entitled to them either on the basis of post-nuptial declarations of citizenship which were invalid in that they did not conform with the requirements of the 1956 Act or (in a lesser number of cases) on the basis of improper entry of their births in the Foreign Births Entry Book.

ACTION TAKEN TO DEAL WITH THE SITUATION

Changes in Legislation

15. In the majority of the cases referred to above, the abuses which had taken place occurred under the provisions of the 1956 Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, which allowed women who were not Irish citizens to obtain Irish citizenship immediately upon marriage to an Irish citizen if they lodged a post-nuptial declaration of citizenship and supporting documentation. These provisions were amended by the 1986 Act of the same name. This came fully into effect in January, 1987, some months before the abuses referred to came to light.

16. Section 3 of the 1986 Act, the text of which appears as Annex 3, considerably tightens the earlier legislative requirements. The 1986 Act, while it allows for alien men as well as alien women married to Irish citizens to make post nuptial declarations of citizenship, provides that the marriages involved must be subsisting for more than three years and that an affidavit must be made by the Irish spouse to the effect that the partners are living together.

Recovery of Passports improperly issued — Summary of Position

17. 40 of the passports issued wrongly to persons whose purported post-nuptial declarations were invalid have since been recovered. Investigation is continuing in another 31 individual cases in conjunction with the Gardaí.

18. All 12 of the passports issued in cases involving invalid entries in the Foreign Births Entry Book have been recovered.

IMPROVED CONTROL PROCEDURES

19. While it is impossible to guarantee with absolute assurance that fraud or abuse will not occur through an abuse of trust, it is clearly important that procedures and controls be such as to minimise, and insofar as possible to eliminate, the possibility of fraud or abuse and to ensure that, if fraud does occur, it will quickly be brought to light. As a result of the investigations undertaken by the Department in conjunction with the Gardaí and the recommendations made by Mr. Kevin Murphy (Secretary for Public Service Management and Development in the Department of Finance) the Department has now put improved procedures in place at Headquarters and at its office abroad which it believes will achieve this. These procedures will be kept under regular review.

20. The main features of the improved procedures are as follows:

(a)all applications for post nuptial citizenship must now be referred to the Department for clearance, after examination by the receiving Mission, before the application is accepted;

(b)new instructions on the subject of fraud which take into account the types of cases uncovered in the investigation have been issued to all missions. In particular the provisions in regard to the production of documentation required to establish both eligibility for citizenship and proof of identity of the applicant have been tightened considerably;

(c)improved methods of processing, despatching, storing and controlling the issue of passport booklets have been introduced at Headquarters and at all our missions;

(d)computer facilities at the Passport Office and at the London Embassy have been considerably upgraded.

DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

20 July, 1990.

ANNEX 1

IRISH NATIONALITY AND CITIZENSHIP ACT, 1956

“8.—(1) A woman who is in an alien at the date of her marriage to a person who is an Irish citizen (otherwise than by naturalisation) shall not become an Irish citizen merely by virtue of her marriage, but may do so by lodging a declaration in the prescribed manner with the Minister, or with any Irish diplomatic mission or consular office, either before or at any time after the marriage accepting Irish citizenship as her post-nuptial citizenship.

(2) A woman who lodges a declaration under subsection (1) shall be an Irish citizen from the date of her marriage, if the declaration was lodged before the marriage, or if lodged thereafter, then from the date of lodgment.

(3) A woman who, before the passing of this Act, married a person who was an Irish citizen (otherwise than by naturalisation) and became a naturalised Irish citizen shall be deemed to have lodged a declaration under subsection (1) on the passing of this Act and thereafter shall be an Irish citizen by virtue thereof and not by naturalisation.”

ANNEX 2

IRISH NATIONALITY AND CITIZENSHIP ACT, 1956

“6.—(1) Every person born in Ireland is an Irish citizen from birth.

(2) Every person is an Irish citizen if his father or mother was an Irish citizen at the time of that person’s birth or becomes an Irish citizen under subsection (1) or would be an Irish citizen under that subsection if alive at the passing of this Act.

(3) In the case of a person born before the passing of this Act, subsection (2) applies from the date of its passing. In every other case, it applies from birth.

(4) A person born before the passing of this Act whose father or mother is an Irish citizen under subsection (2), or would be if alive at its passing, shall be an Irish citizen from the date of its passing.

(5) Subsection (1) shall not confer Irish citizenship on the child of an alien who, at the time of the child’s birth, is entitled to diplomatic immunity in the State.

7.—(1) Pending the re-integration of the national territory, subsection (1) of section 6 shall not apply to a person, not otherwise an Irish citizen, born in Northern Ireland on or after the 6 December, 1922, unless, in the prescribed manner, that person, if of full age, declares himself to be an Irish citizen or, if he is not of full age, his parent or guardian declares him to be an Irish citizen. In any such case, the subsection shall be deemed to apply to him from birth.

(2) Neither subsection (2) nor (4) of section 6 shall confer Irish citizenship on a person born outside Ireland if the father or mother through whom he derives citizenship was also born outside Ireland, unless—

(a)that person’s birth is registered under section 27, or

(b)his father or mother, as the case may be, was at the time of his birth resident abroad in the public service.”

“27.—(1) A foreign births entry book shall be kept in every Irish diplomatic mission and consular office and a foreign births register shall be kept in the Department of External Affairs in Dublin.

(2) The birth outside Ireland of a person deriving citizenship through a father or mother born outside Ireland may be registered, in accordance with the foreign births regulations, either in any foreign births entry book or in the foreign births register, at the option of the person registering the birth.

(3) Particulars of all births entered in a foreign births entry book shall be transmitted, from time to time, in accordance with the foreign births regulations, to the Department of External Affairs for entry in the foreign births register

(4) A document purporting to be a copy of an entry in a foreign births entry book or in the foreign births register, and to be duly authenticated, shall be admitted in evidence without proof of the signature or seal whereby it is authenticated or of the authority of the person whose signature or seal appears thereon and shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed a true copy of the entry and accepted as proof of the fact and terms thereof.

(5) The Minister for External Affairs may make regulations (in this Act referred to as the foreign births regulations) respecting the form and manner of keeping of foreign births entry books and the foreign births register, the registration of births therein, the transmission of particulars of births from foreign births entry books for entry in the foreign births register, the inspection of the books and register by the public, the furnishing of extracts therefrom, and (with the consent of the Minister for Finance) the fees (if any) to be charged for registration of births in the books and register, for the inspection thereof and for furnishing extracts therefrom.”

ANNEX 3

IRISH NATIONALITY AND CITIZENSHIP ACT, 1986

“3.—The following section is hereby substituted for section 8 of the Act of 1956:

‘8.—(1) A person who is an alien at the date of that person’s marriage to a person who is, or who after the marriage becomes, an Irish citizen (otherwise than by naturalisation or by virtue of this section or section 12) shall not become an Irish citizen merely by virtue of the marriage, but may do so by lodging, not earlier than three years from the date of the marriage or from the date on which the person last mentioned became an Irish citizen (otherwise than as aforesaid), whichever is the later, a declaration in the prescribed manner with the Minister, or with any Irish diplomatic mission or consular office, accepting Irish citizenship as post nuptial citizenship: provided that—

(a)the marriage is subsisting at the date of lodgment of the declaration, and

(b)the couple are living together as husband and wife and the spouse who is in an Irish citizen submits an affidavit to that effect when the declaration is being lodged.

(2) A person who lodges a declaration under subsection (1) shall be an Irish citizen from the date of lodgment.

(3) A person who, before the passing of this Act, married a person who was an Irish citizen (otherwise that by naturalisation) and became a naturalised Irish citizen shall be deemed to have lodged a declaration under subsection (1) on the passing of this Act and thereafter shall be an Irish citizen by virtue thereof and not by naturalisation.”