Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether Republic of Ireland citizens will be included in Government plans for the biometric enrolment of non-Irish foreign nationals visiting the UK.

Irish citizens will not be required to obtain an ETA.

All other non- British and non-Irish nationals arriving in the UK, including those crossing the land border into Northern Ireland, need to enter in line with the UK’s immigration framework: this will include the requirement to obtain an ETA when it is introduced. However, as now, the UK will not operate routine immigration controls on journeys from within the Common Travel Area, with no immigration controls whatsoever on the Ireland-Northern Ireland land border.

The UK remains committed to working with Ireland to give consideration to whether there is scope for a workable UK/Ireland data-sharing solution to determine, whether a person is a lawful resident of Ireland, and so could potentially be exempt from the ETA requirement for travel into the UK.

Irish citizens are not subject to immigration control and are not routinely required to enrol their biometrics.