Business visas have been abused by two separate groups in the past fortnight alone, the Minister for Justice said last night. He told the Dail the authorities became aware the groups, from China and Pakistan, were not genuine "when the companies who had invited them, contacted us following their failure to appear as arranged." He said it was also "not unheard of" for some members of a group to be bona fide but for others "to be brought along who are not, in exchange for payment".

The Minister was responding to Labour's justice spokesman, Mr Brendan Howlin, who called on him to publicly apologise to the seven Pakistani businessmen who were detained in Mountjoy Prison over the weekend. Mr Howlin said if it were a once-off occurrence, it could be considered a terrible mistake but it was in fact part of a pattern.

Mr O'Donoghue said that only a "tiny proportion of all passengers are refused entry to the State" and "Irish immigration procedures operate in a manner not dissimilar to those which apply in many other jurisdictions".