OPINION: Unfinished business: Irish Passport Office for Northern Ireland

Ray Bassett was a senior member of the Irish Government delegation to the Good Friday/ Belfast Agreement and its representative in Belfast from 2001 to 2005. The former Irish ambassador to Canada who also head of the Passport Office in Ireland in the early 2000s. Here he gives his views an Irish Passport Office north of the border.
There has been a surge in the number of people from Britain applying for Irish passports in the wake of the Brexit referendum.There has been a surge in the number of people from Britain applying for Irish passports in the wake of the Brexit referendum.
There has been a surge in the number of people from Britain applying for Irish passports in the wake of the Brexit referendum.

As the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement approaches, there is some unfinished business from that period still on the table. One of those is the question of an Irish Passport Office in the North. The issue has become topical again. A look back at previous developments might help inform the current debate.

Under the Constitutional Issues section of the GFA, (section iv) the two Governments and the political parties in Northern Ireland signed up that they: “recognise the birthright of all the people of Northern Ireland to identify themselves and to be accepted as Irish or British, or both, as they so choose, and accordingly confirm that their right to hold both British and Irish citizenship is accepted by both Governments and would not be affected by any future change in the status of Northern Ireland.”

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The two Nationalist parties at the GFA, the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and Sinn Féin (SF), in 1998 both pressed the Irish Government for some concrete expression of this commitment. Already the Irish citizenship of those in the North had been given Constitutional underpinning in the new amended section of the Irish Constitution (Article 2). To Nationalists, a concrete example of that new guarantee was ready access to Passports. Under the Irish Constitution, every citizen enjoys the right to travel and hence a Passport.

Ray Bassett, former Irish Ambassador to Canada, Jamaica  and Bahamas.Ray Bassett, former Irish Ambassador to Canada, Jamaica  and Bahamas.
Ray Bassett, former Irish Ambassador to Canada, Jamaica and Bahamas.

As an Irish Government official, with the backing of our then Foreign Affairs Minister David Andrews, I discussed the matter with the Deputy leaders of both parties, Seamus Mallon and Martin McGuinness. Mallon was particularly strong in his demand that the Irish Government open a Passport Office in Northern Ireland. He made it plain he would like to see that facility located at Armagh city in his own constituency. Mallon said that if that was not possible, he wanted it placed in the very centre of Belfast to remind all that a new dispensation was in force, whereby Irish Nationalism and British Unionism would enjoy parity of esteem. Within his SDLP party, there were others strongly pressing the Irish Government to have a Passport Office within Northern Ireland, including P J Bradley and Patsy McGlone.

McGuinness was no less insistent but naturally wanted to see any Office established to be located in Derry city. Apart from the Deputy Leader of SF, I do not recall many other members of the party pressing the Irish Government on this issue. At the time there was huge pressure on SF over the issue of decommissioning of paramilitary arms and disbandment of active paramilitarism, so that the party’s focus was elsewhere.

Subsequent discussions with British Government officials indicated no fundamental objection on their side to the opening of an Irish Passport Office but they urged the Irish Government to engage with the Ulster Unionists on the matter. As relations between Dublin and Trimble’s Unionists were excellent, both at an official and personal level, the Irish Government readily agreed.

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The Unionists indicated that they had no fundamental objection to an Irish Passport Office, provided that nothing was implemented to lessen their ability to obtain and possess British Passports. In fact, they could see advantages for people in Northern Ireland having easy access to both national documents. However, as the senior party officials pointed out, Unionism was having to face changes in a whole number of areas such as policing, judicial reform, strengthened equality legislation, prisoner releases, etc., it was not a good time to add another visible sign of a changing landscape. This appeal was a strong argument for the Irish Government who were trying to bolster David Trimble’s Ulster Unionists in the face of attacks from the Democratic Unionist Party.

This picture taken on January 31, 2020 shows Union flag from the United Kingdom Representation removed from the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, on Brexit Day. - Britain left the European Union at 2300 GMT on January 31, 2020, 43 months after the country voted in a June 2016 referendum to leave the block. The withdrawal from the union ended more than four decades of economic, political and legal integration with its closest neighbours. (Photo by Patrick HERTZOG / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK HERTZOG/AFP via Getty Images)This picture taken on January 31, 2020 shows Union flag from the United Kingdom Representation removed from the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, on Brexit Day. - Britain left the European Union at 2300 GMT on January 31, 2020, 43 months after the country voted in a June 2016 referendum to leave the block. The withdrawal from the union ended more than four decades of economic, political and legal integration with its closest neighbours. (Photo by Patrick HERTZOG / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK HERTZOG/AFP via Getty Images)
This picture taken on January 31, 2020 shows Union flag from the United Kingdom Representation removed from the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, on Brexit Day. - Britain left the European Union at 2300 GMT on January 31, 2020, 43 months after the country voted in a June 2016 referendum to leave the block. The withdrawal from the union ended more than four decades of economic, political and legal integration with its closest neighbours. (Photo by Patrick HERTZOG / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK HERTZOG/AFP via Getty Images)

Discussions with the Loyalists were very straightforward and constructive. David Ervine, leader of the PUP, told us that he had no problem with an Irish Passport Office. His stated view was that, if the people along the Falls wanted Irish Passports, then this was a matter for them. He had no desire to intervene. However, the Loyalists reiterated the Ulster Unionist point that this should not herald any diminution in the status of the Britishness of the pro-union people in Northern Ireland. The Alliance Party were also supportive of the idea of an Irish Passport Office.

We also held informal discussions with senior members of the police. Again, the police felt there was no serious security issue to the establishment of a Passport Office in the North.

However, it was important to be sensitive on location and also on how the matter was to be presented to the wider public. Of course, this was against the background of very cooperative relations right across the political spectrum when parties and Governments were seeking to support each other. There was a great deal of trust among officials and politicians engendered in the Good Friday Talks and excellent relations right down from Taoiseach/Prime Minister level.

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After the consultations were complete, the Irish Government decided not to push the case for opening the Office at that time. As an interim measure and with the full support of the parties to the GFA, it was decided to use the Post Office system in Northern Ireland to receive applications and deliver new Passports. The proposal was made more palatable to Unionists by including a small number of Post Offices in GB as part of the scheme. It was always accepted that the Irish Government would return to the issue at a later date.

The 2016 EU Withdrawal Referendum result.The 2016 EU Withdrawal Referendum result.
The 2016 EU Withdrawal Referendum result.

In the discussions about using the Royal Mail, the Irish Government offered full reciprocity for British Passports in the Republic and that where demand made it viable, Irish Post Offices would mirror what was about to be made available in the North. However, the British side declined our offer. While Martin McGuinness was initially skeptical that the Post Office alternative would work, he soon came around to the idea.

Some years later we began to look again at the possibility of opening a Passport Office in the North. In fact, a location was looked at near the Foyle Bridge in Derry. There was also consideration to having a small Passport Section attached to the Irish Government Office (Secretariat) in Belfast. Privately P J Bradley continue to press on the Irish Government the case for an office in Newry or elsewhere in South Down.

However as tentative plans began to be drawn up to present a proposal to the Irish Government, the financial crash in 2008 occurred and pressure came on the Department of Foreign Affairs to drastically cut expenditure. This included cuts to public servants pay and pensions which in turn provoked serious industrial action within the Passport Office. It was the wrong time to push the case for a Passport Office in the North. Again, the issue was left in abeyance.

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The case has been revived recently particularly by SF Irish Senator and former Lord Mayor of Belfast Niall Ó Dunnghaile. Demand for Irish Passports in the North has grown considerably in the meantime and now surpasses that for British Passports, even though the official figures underestimate the number of Irish Passports as they do not include those which are processed either in person at the Passport Office or arrive through the standard mail. Many in Northern Ireland want to avail of the free movement of people within the EU which an Irish Passport affords.

An outstanding example of a successful Provincial Passport Office is in Cork which caters for the whole of Munster. It is greatly valued by the people of Cork as it runs a very efficient service to the Munster public. In this context it should be recalled that there are more than twice the number of people entitled to Irish citizenship in Ulster compared to Munster.

It would now seem time to finally fulfill this long-standing project and to do so in as non-partisan and non- contentious manner as possible.