The Government will begin inserting a computer chip into all new passports from October 2005 to store biometric data regarding the holder.
The Department of Foreign Affairs is tendering for a system that can generate a biometric image of a face, store it on a chip and then embed it into passports.
The successful bidder is being asked to get the system up and running by October 2005 so Irish citizens can continue to travel to the US without applying for a visa, according to official tender documents published yesterday.
Under new US legislation, all countries in its visa waiver programme will need to introduce biometrics to all newly produced passports by October 2005.
If they don't, their citizens will have to apply for a visa and be fingerprinted at a US embassy.
The requirement to hold a passport with an embedded computer chip containing biometric data will not initially apply to holders of Irish passports that were issued before October 2005.
The decision to use a digitally stored image of a person's face as the biometric for Irish passports was agreed by the Cabinet last week and follows guidelines agreed by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
But it is possible that other biometric data such as fingerprints will be embedded into passports in the future, depending on future EU legislation. Britain is currently evaluating whether to include iris scans or fingerprints in a new identity card scheme that it hopes to set up by 2008.
A number of civil liberties groups, including the British group Statewatch, have criticised embedding biometrics into passports as it will create databases of data that could be used against individuals.
It would also lead to long queues for people waiting for facial scans or fingerprints to be taken by authorities, it said.
The tender specifies that the technology must be globally operable and be able to read the biometric data on the chip. It also says that the contract should be completed as quickly as possible.
The Government is seeking between three and five suitably qualified companies to whom it will issue the full tender.
BearingPoint, the company that recently completed the installation of a new system to produce machine-readable passports, is expected to tender for this project as well.
A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman said the decision had now been taken by the Government and a pilot project should begin soon.