Irish people made 8 million trips overseas in 2008 - Minister Martin highlights advantages of travel registration service

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Irish people made 8 million trips overseas in 2008 - Minister Martin highlights advantages of travel registration service

Speaking at the year end on the services provided by the Department of Foreign Affairs to Irish citizens the Minister, Micheál Martin T.D., said

"Last year, Irish residents made 8 million trips overseas (1.65 million alone to Spain) and there are an estimated 100,000 properties in Irish ownership in Spain. In order to give a better service, we launched a new the travel registration service in January. With ever increasing numbers of Irish citizens travelling abroad, this development has proved invaluable. All citizens, particularly those travelling to ‘remote or challenging places' should be encouraged to register.

In particular, the recent protests in Bangkok proved the value of registration. Most of the Irish citizens stranded in Bangkok were passing through, many of their way to or from Australia. These were scattered throughout the city and surrounding areas. Under the old system, it would have involved a major bureaucratic exercise to contact and register them all. With the new on-line registration system in place, almost 400 Irish citizens in the Thai capital were able to provide their own contact information, enabling the Department to stay in close contact with them throughout the crisis. Many of the young Irish registered with the Department using internet cafes in Bangkok. It involved the use of simple technology but had a huge effect and enabled the Department to stay in touch with Irish citizens on a large scale. If an evacuation of Irish citizens was required, the data base provided by the system of voluntary on line registration would have been invaluable.

The Consular Division in my Department is providing assistance to an increasing number of families who suffer bereavements abroad. In 2008, circa 200 deaths abroad came to the attention of the service, a 33% increase on the 150 reported in 2007. Each one of these cases involves a tragedy to a family in Ireland which was sometimes exacerbated by long bureaucratic delays in releasing bodies to the families. My Department does everything in its power to assist Irish families who find themselves in this unfortunate position. One area which is causing particular concern is the rise in the number of deaths overseas, especially those involving accidents to young people, including motor accidents and drowning

The Department has recently published a booklet, Travel Safely – Slán Abhaile which is a guide to Irish citizens travelling overseas. While the vast bulk of these visits are accident free, I want to do everything I can to assist in cutting down on the number of Irish families who receive tragic news from abroad. The booklet provides practical tips on how to ensure a safe and enjoyable visit overseas.

I can assure every Irish citizen we will do everything we can to assist you. However, the Department’s assistance cannot replace the need for the purchase of private and comprehensive medical and travel cover. I strongly recommend all travellers obtain appropriate cover in order to avoid the burden placed on families in the unfortunate event of an incident abroad.

Happy Christmas and a safe 2009".

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1 January

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