The Justice Minister has expressed his surprise at a decision by the European Commission to stall the go-ahead for Israel to get access to personal data of EU citizens.
Ireland was the only country that objected to the move.
It had been expected other EU member states would vote it through today.
We had objected because Israeli data protection laws are not on a par with those in the EU especially in relation to passport control.
Justice Minister Dermot Ahern says given that Israel is accused of forging Irish passports it was only right to raise objections even if it damages relations.
“That’s really I suppose a matter for the diplomats involved” he said.
“The fact is that citizens of Ireland had their passports tampered with – or the details of their passports tampered with – clearly by agents on behalf of the Israeli state”.
“That’s something that I think if we didn’t make a protest at the first available opportunity” he added.
