Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has described as "an entirely legitimate analysis" the views of a senior official in his department, who said Nigerian and Chinese nationals would supply false references if the application process for An Garda Síochána was open to them.
In an e-mail to two senior officials at the Department of Justice, principal officer Michael R Gleeson discussed various avenues open to the department in recruiting foreign nationals to An Garda Síochána.
The e-mail was sent to assistant secretary of the department Michael Flahive and principal officer John Lohan.
Mr Gleeson raised the prospect of opening the recruitment drive to foreign nationals resident abroad and not just to those resident in the Republic.
"I think this would be stark raving mad," he wrote in the e-mail.
"You will be inundated with applications from places like Nigeria and China supported by false references."
He suggested that the process should only be open to foreign nationals resident here for five years and who had registered with the immigration authorities, including gardaí.
"A selling point with the Garda in relation to this proposal is that they themselves through the (immigration) registration process would have had a handle on the person in question for five years," he said.
The e-mail also reveals officials in the department feared a backlash from the private sector, if people were eligible to apply to join the Garda Síochána after coming here on a work permit with an Irish company.
"If a firm goes to the trouble and expense of recruiting a non-national worker only to have him join the police four months after he arrives then some people will not be happy. In other words, you will piggy-back on the efforts of Irish firms to recruit labour from abroad."
The memo was sent in October 2004 as preparations were being made to abolish a proficiency in Irish as a requirement for entry into the force, thus enabling foreign nationals to apply.
The proposal has since been implemented and entry into the force is open to any person resident here for five years or more.
Mr Gleeson's e-mail was provided to the Irish language paper Foinse under the Freedom of Information Act.
Its content was raised with Mr McDowell in a parliamentary question from Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD of Sinn Féin.
Mr McDowell said the correspondence had contributed to the debate on the issue of Garda recruitment, which had "included an analysis of the potential benefits and disadvantages of different models of eligibility . . . ranging from restricted models to liberal models".
He continued: "It was an entirely legitimate analysis of the undoubtedly large potential difficulties, including difficulties in checking the integrity of documentary evidence of qualifications, that could arise in an extension of eligibility worldwide."
He said the argument against worldwide eligibility was accepted by him.
Under the new system, eligibility to apply to join An Garda Síochána has been extended to all nationals of EU member states, European Economic Area states and nationals of any other state who are lawfully resident in Ireland for five years.
The first round of recruitment under the new rules is currently under way. Of the 8,500 applicants to An Garda Síochána under the latest recruitment round, an estimated 2,000 were foreign nationals.
Those candidates have undergone aptitude tests and are currently waiting to be called for interview.
Following a physical and medical examination, the first foreign national trainee gardaí should be starting at the Garda Training College, Templemore, Co Tipperary, in the coming months.
