‘Poodle passports’ no badge of sovereignty

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern is to introduce new offences relating to travelling on a false Irish passport.

However, typical of Fianna Fáil, he has also sneaked into this bill measures that will regulate the storage and use of biometric data collected by the Passport Office.

Under the US visa waiver programme, participating countries must move fully to biometric passports before October 26 next. Mr Ahern said he was confident that Ireland would meet the US deadline. What about our sovereignty?