DUTY-FREE PROBLEMS:CONCERN OVER "quasi-secret" connections and agreements between branches of officialdom in Ireland and the United Kingdom were expressed in a letter from the Irish ambassador in London to the top civil servant at the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1978.
Ambassador Paul Keating wrote, in a letter marked “personal”, to department secretary Robert McDonagh on July 17th, 1978: “I am somewhat concerned at the development of quasi-secret links between branches of the administration in Ireland and their opposite numbers here, of which this embassy is not informed.
“It has always been a problem as far as the links between the Home Office and the Department of Justice are concerned and there have, in the past, been very close links between the Treasury and the Department of Finance.
“Partnership in the Community encourages the development of further direct contact,” continues the letter, which has been released under the 30-year rule.
But the ambassador stresses that “the contacts as such” are not a cause of concern. “What I am worried about is the secrecy that relates to them in many cases and the fact that they may have repercussions in more than just the technical field they are intended to cover.
“I think, for this reason, it is most desirable that the embassy be informed of such agreements and, furthermore, that before such agreements are entered into, points of general policy should be widely discussed with our department.”
An issue had arisen in relation to duty-free arrangements between Ireland and Britain: “There is no formal agreement in this regard but there is an understanding of some kind between the Department of Finance and the Treasury and the different Revenue authorities.
“I am not sure of the exact nature of this understanding and the only advice I can get from Dublin is that the Department of Finance feel it better for me not to raise the matter with the British and that the matter can be solved best on a Revenue-to-Revenue basis.
“This, I am afraid, is just not good enough because the question is now acquiring political importance among the Irish community here,” the ambassador continues.
Airline passengers travelling from Britain to Ireland were not being allowed to purchase duty-free goods: “I have had complaints on this matter from the community and from the local air and travel agencies.
“I would have no hesitation in raising the matter here were it not for my anxiety about possible informal understandings between the Department of Finance and the Treasury. I can get no clarification that such an understanding exists,” the letter continues.
Fortunately, the matter had already been raised “very effectively” by minister of state David Andrews with his opposite number at the Foreign Office, Frank Judd: “He did so because of his personal experience of the situation at Heathrow which angered and frustrated him when he was travelling through here some weeks ago.”
The ambassador suggests that the root of the problem could be “laziness on the part of the airport authorities and customs administrations” but added that tourism into Ireland was suffering as a result.
