Ahern announces new border control system

The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Dermot Ahern, today announced that a new system to crackdown on people visiting Ireland who overstay their time will come into effect next year.

Minister Ahern said: "We are currently developing a new Irish Border Information System (IBIS). This will operate on the basis that passenger information collected by carriers prior to departure will be sent to an Irish Border Operations Centre (I-BOC) where it will be screened against immigration, Garda, customs and other watch-lists.

"In the event that a match occurs the relevant agency concerned would be alerted immediately, facilitating time to take appropriate measures to monitor, intercept, question, stop or arrest the individual concerned.

"The Government has approved the development of the first phase of the system and I expect the roll out of the system will commence during 2010," he added.