No foreign travel for habitual criminals

CRIMINALS were to be grounded under a proposal by the Minister for Foreign Affairs to refuse passports to habitual offenders.

But an incredulous Department of Justice, fearing all kinds of legal, practical and diplomatic problems, recommended "that we throw their proposal right back at them".

The idea was dreamed up in 1967 by then External Affairs Minister Frank Aiken who sought the views of his Cabinet colleague in Justice, Brian Lenihan.