asked the Minister for Justice if requests from Irish citizens to embassies for permission to emigrate are the subject of inquiries by such embassies to the Garda Síochána or the security forces in general; whether such inquiries are responded to; if so, in what way; the criteria laid down for processing such inquiries; and the number of such inquiries dealt with in the past ten years.
Written Answers. - Emigration Inquiries.
267.
The answer to the first part of the question is "no". However, persons seeking to emigrate from this country to certain other States are required by the authorities of those States to produce what is usually referred to as a certificate of character from the Garda Síochána. The approach to the Garda Síochána is not made by the embassy but by the persons concerned. To facilitate such applicants, as a service to them, the Garda Síochána issue the required document.
The certificate is primarily a certificate that the applicant was not convicted of an indictable crime, except as may be stated on the certificate. (As it is issued at the request of the person concerned, no question of confidentiality arises in relation to the disclosure of a criminal record). There is a general understanding that, in giving such a certificate, the Garda need not take account of any convictions recorded against a person under the age of 17 years.
Depending on the procedural requirements of the State in question, the document is sent either to the diplomatic or consular mission concerned or to the applicant himself. Where it is sent to the applicant, it carries a stamp that it is issued only for the information of the particular authorities concerned. It is not therefore intended as, or available for use as, a general reference such as a private citizen might issue. A record of the number of the documents in question issued by the Garda Síochána has been maintained since March, 1972; since then over 26,000 have been issued.