Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern intervened yesterday to ensure that controversial US academic Noam Chomsky could visit Ireland despite having an out-of-date passport, The Irish Times has learned.
Seen as the foremost intellectual critic of US foreign policy and the war on Iraq, Dr Chomsky, a senior professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was scheduled to give four addresses during his visit, starting with a lecture at University College Dublin this evening.
However, a last-minute difficulty arose when it emerged that his passport was out of date. It seemed certain that he would not arrive in time for tonight's lecture and even a heavily-publicised talk under the auspices of Amnesty International tomorrow night seemed to be in jeopardy.
Dr Chomsky told The Irish Times at the weekend that he had "just had a disaster" because his passport was invalid.
Since yesterday was a public holiday in the US, he did not expect to be able to sort out the difficulty until today.
He indicated in an e-mail that this would preclude his arrival in time for this evening's lecture and also meant he would only make tomorrow night's talk "with tremendous luck". He said he was "racing now to see what can be done".
However, the requirement for an up-to-date passport was set aside by the Minister, as he is entitled to do by law, when he heard about Dr Chomsky's difficulty.
A spokesman for Mr Ahern said: "The Minister asked officials to waive the requirement in relation to his passport to ensure he would be able to deliver his lecture at UCD and fulfil his other engagements.
"While Dr Chomsky and the Irish Government might not see eye-to-eye on a number of matters involving world affairs, it is important that his views and his voice would be heard as scheduled," the spokesman added.
It is understood the Minister was made aware of the difficulty yesterday morning and contact was made with immigration officials, the airline with which Dr Chomsky was travelling and Department of Justice headquarters.
Dr Chomsky is now expected to fly in from Boston this morning.
"The Minister got officials to pull out all the stops," a Government source said.
Tonight's lecture, Democracy Promotion: Reflections on Intellectuals and the State, is taking place under the auspices of the school of philosophy and the Clinton Institute for American Studies at UCD.
All tickets have been allocated for Dr Chomsky's Amnesty lecture tomorrow night in the RDS, but he will give further talks at UCD on Thursday and Friday.