A "RIGHT TO TRAVEL" issue confronted the government more than 30 years ago.
In the 1960s, the burning issue was emigration, and - for the Catholic bishops at least - the moral decay into which the youth of Ireland was falling in "pagan" England.
In February 1965 the two secretaries of the Hierarchy the Bishop of Dromore, the Rev Eugene O'Doherty, and the Bishop of Achonry, the Rev James Fergus, wrote to the Taoiseach Mr Lemass. They enclosed a copy of a resolution adopted by the annual conference of emigrant chaplains the previous Easter.
According to the resolution about one in five of those who emigrated was under the age of 18.
Job opportunities were few and their souls were in great danger. "Their immaturity leaves them entirely unprepared for life in a pagan and amoral environment. Emigration in their case said one speaker, could almost be called a proximate occasion of mortal sin."
"While church authorities should not allow themselves to be called upon to act as `police' in preventing the emigration of under 18s (a policy which would further est range these young people from the church and create a public image of the Hierarchy as repressive), they should bring the seriousness of this situation to the attention, not only of parents but also of the civil authorities."
These same civil authorities had a "serious obligation" in the matter, according to the resolution. "Even if it is not considered feasible for the State to forbid the emigration of under 18s, it was emphasised as most desirable that the Government should introduce some kind of identity card which could be checked at the ports, no matter what trouble or expense might be involved."
In his response to the bishops Mr Lemass said the Government had considered extending the remit of the Children Act 1908, in order to deal with "the problem".
It also considered the reintroduction of travel permits and identity cards, in force during the second World War. Such a system depended on the co operation of the British authorities.
"That position is now fundamentally changed, as the British do not require travel documents for persons coming from Northern Ireland and our long land frontier with Northern Ireland is completely open."
Similarly, visitors from Britain - including large numbers of Irish people and their children - no longer needed travel documents, and would not be able to produce the necessary papers when returning to their homes.
"Legislation to prohibit the emigration of young persons under penalty of committing an offence would, even if it were constitutional, operate to discourage the return to Ireland of the offenders. It would also seem to involve interference with normal and justifiable travel where no danger to the young persons in question was involved."