An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-03
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Pat the Cope Gallagher (FF), Donegal

I want to again raise the issue of Aer Lingus taking a unilateral decision to insist that those travelling from the Republic to mainland Great Britain must have a passport. This is creating all sorts of problems for Irish people. There is a presumption that everybody has a passport. I know many people in my county who do not have passports but travel to the UK regularly. To take a practical example, if some of those people have a relative who dies in the UK, they have to get a passport. As the Taoiseach knows, people cannot get an emergency passport if it is the first time. Many of those did not have passports. It is necessary for Aer Lingus to be more practical and to at least give people an opportunity. It is wrong that the company should have done this. Ryanair always had this policy. Ironically, people have to travel with British Airways to get across from Dublin. Perhaps the Taoiseach could raise it with Aer Lingus, or his Minister could raise it with it.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-03/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:02+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-03