Sale of passports to sheikh irregular, says McDowell

THE sale of 11 Irish passports for stg£20m to an Arab sheikh in 1991 was irregular and unusual, Justice Minister Michael McDowell said yesterday.

In hindsight, the controversial file on the Mahfouz passports raised serious questions into the role of former Taoiseach Charles Haughey, the minister said.

“I am not in a position to supply any explanation from the file which I have examined for the then Taoiseach’s apparent interest in having the case processed with unusual haste,” he said.

In the wake of the Flood Tribunal’s controversial finding that Ray Burke had received corrupt payments, the Taoiseach asked Mr McDowell to re-examine the file.

Mr Burke was minister for justice at the time the passports were issued. He signed the certificates of naturalisation for the 11 people - eight Saudi Arabians and three Pakistanis. The affair is currently under investigation by the Moriarty Tribunal.

The citizenship was granted as part of the passports-for-investment scheme, in return for a promised stg£20m investment in Ireland by Sheikh Khalid Bin Mahfouz.

“My examination confirms the 11 passports and naturalisations in question were granted in a manner which was irregular and unusual,” Mr McDowell said.

It appeared the passports and naturalisations were processed in a manner which bypassed usual formalities and ignored the failure of the applicants to comply with basic documentary requirement, he said.

Under the investment-based naturalisation scheme, Irish citizenship could be granted, through the naturalisation process, to non-nationals who were prepared to invest in Irish businesses.

Labour justice spokesman Pat Rabbitte wanted to know why Mr Burke was brought into the Cabinet in 1997, after the matter was raised with the Taoiseach three years previously.

“What does the minister now conclude in terms of Mr Ahern’s reading of that file, referred to him by Máire Geoghegan Quinn? Was that not a cause for alarm that would have warranted Mr Burke being excluded from Cabinet?” Mr Rabbitte said.

Mr McDowell said when Mr Burke was appointed as Minister for Foreign Affairs, none of the opposition parties raised his involvement in the passports’ issue. An inquiry was completed when the rainbow coalition was in office, he said.

Former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds advised Mr Ahern to examine the passport affair before appointing Mr Burke to the Cabinet in 1997.