S.I. No. 335/2024 - Immigration Act 2004 (Visas) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2024

Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

“Iris Oifigiúil” of 9th July, 2024.

I, HELEN MCENTEE, Minister for Justice, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 17 of the Immigration Act 2004 (No. 1 of 2004) (as adapted by the Justice and Equality (Alteration of Name of Department and Title of Minister) Order 2020 ( S.I. No. 452 of 2020 )), hereby order as follows:

1. (1) This Order may be cited as the Immigration Act 2004 (Visas) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2024.

(2) This Order comes into operation on 10 July 2024.

2. The Immigration Act 2004 (Visas) Order ( S.I. No. 473 of 2014 ) is amended –

(a) by the substitution of the following for Schedule 1:

“SCHEDULE 1

Article 3(a)

”,

(b) in Schedule 2, by the insertion of “South Africa” after “Qatar”,

and

(c) by the substitution of the following for Schedule 5:

“SCHEDULE 5

Article 4

”.

GIVEN under my Official Seal,

4 July, 2024.

HELEN MCENTEE,

Minister for Justice.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Instrument and does not purport to be a legal interpretation.)

This Order amends the Immigration Act 2004 (Visas) Order 2014. The Order imposes a requirement for nationals of Botswana and South Africa both to obtain a visa in order to be granted authorisation to land in the State, as well as to obtain a transit visa in order to be granted authorisation to arrive at a port in the State for purposes of passing through the port in order to travel to another state.

This Order also allows for an exception to the visa requirement for South African nationals who are holders of a diplomatic passport and holders of a service passport or public affairs passport who arrive in the State in the company of a Minister of the Government where that Minister is on an official visit.

This Order also replaces Schedules 1 and 5 for the sake of sake of accessibility.