A Cork man, jailed for 6½ years in Spain, has taken High Court proceedings challenging the Department of Foreign Affairs refusal to issue him with a passport.
According to a letter from a Department official to Mr Seán O'Flynn, Deanrock, Togher, the refusal was "in the interests of public order and common good".
Mr Justice O'Donovan granted Mr O'Flynn leave yesterday to seek an order quashing the Department's decision.
In an affidavit, Mr O'Flynn said he had sought to renew his passport last September through the Irish consulate in Fuengirola, Spain, but was told he must apply to the passport office in Cork. On his return to Ireland, he was told to apply to the Dublin office.
Mr O'Flynn said his solicitor was led to understand the refusal was based on the authorities' desire to first interview him concerning how he came to be in possession of an allegedly false Irish passport in Spain in 1994.
He believed the Department knew already he was arrested by Spanish police in 1994 and convicted of a number of offences, including possession of a false Irish passport.
He had been granted a 10-year passport in 1990. When it expired, he asked for a further 10-year passport but instead was issued with one-year probationary passports. He informed the authorities he would comply with any reasonable administrative requirement, subject only to the maintenance of his privilege against self-incrimination regarding events that had taken place eight years previously.
The Department replied last December saying it had referred a "suspected fraudulent application" to the gardaí. The letter did not identity the suspected fraudulent application. The Passport Office also stated it had decided to refuse Mr O'Flynn further passport facilities "in the interests of public order and the common good." The letter added the matter would be reviewed in the light of the result of the Garda investigation.
Mr O'Flynn said there was no prosecution of any kind against him and he could only assume the "fraudulent application" was a reference to the alleged forged passport in Spain eight years ago.