The Labour Party has urged the Government to revoke an Irish passport held by a Czech fugitive, which he acquired in 1995 under the "passports for investment" scheme.
The party's justice spokesman, Mr Joe Costello, said such a step was urgently required after the Czech authorities announced in the past week that they were seeking the extradition of Mr Viktor Kozeny from the Bahamas.
He was given an Irish passport in 1995 during the Rainbow Coalition in return for a £1 million-plus investment.
Mr Kozeny has been charged with fraud by the Czech authorities and was declared a fugitive last year. He was at the centre of one of the largest of the privatisation scandals that hit eastern Europe after the collapse of Communism.
Mr Costello said the Government should ensure that legislation to abolish the passport scheme includes powers to enable it to revoke Irish passports granted to non-nationals if the recipients were involved in serious crime abroad.
He said there had been no indication from the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, about when the scheme would be formally abolished.
"Mr Kozeny is one of a small number of people who received Irish passports under the investment scheme who are now wanted for serious criminal offences and who may be using Irish passports to avoid arrest.
"The passports may well have been granted in good faith by the Irish authorities at the time, but it surely must be a matter of considerable concern that international fugitives are travelling the world on Irish passports, essentially granted in return for financial payments."
The Czech police has said that Mr Kozeny has avoided all attempts to answer for the fraud charges over the past two years. He lives in the Bahamas and is a former director of Harvard Investment Funds, a company in which about 80,000 Czech nationals made investments but never saw a return.
