Madam, - I was dismayed but not surprised to read the report "Changes to Irish-UK travel area are signalled" ( The Irish Times, July 15th). I understand that Ireland opted out of the Schengen European Common Travel area primarily to preserve the principle of passport-free travel between the two jurisdictions that share this island.
This common travel area has existed since the foundation of the State and has survived all three rounds of "Troubles" along the Border. Passport-free travel along the Border is matched at all Ireland-to-Britain seaports. Production of an Irish air ticket, or boarding card, is still sufficient to bypass immigration controls at all UK airports.
Ironically, it is the Irish authorities that have been abolishing the common travel principle in stages. About five years ago immigration control at Irish airports began stopping all passengers arriving from the UK asking them to state formally that they were British, and/or Irish citizens "normally resident" in either country. Apparently, only such people are entitled to common travel. More recently, they have insisted that all passengers must present a valid British or Irish passport to prove they are entitled to "passport-free" entry into Ireland.
When I asked an airport immigration officer if I needed a passport to walk a dog on my family estate, which straddles the Border, she insisted that the immigration service would be fully entitled to refuse me re-entry into the part of the estate in Co Monaghan if we had strolled passport-less into Co Armagh. This applies to overseas visitors on riding holidays on the estate, who never had any entitlement to the common travel provisions in the first place. She further cautioned me that Gordon Brown was about to definitively end the common travel area.
Surely this is contrary to both the spirit, and the letter of the Good Friday Agreement. Why are Irish Gardaí anticipating a British policy that has yet to be ratified? And, if the right in principle to passport-free area entry to Ireland from the UK, is already gone, when will Ireland be joining Schengen? - Yours, etc,
MARK LESLIE, Islington Avenue, Sandycove, Co Dublin.