Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Nugent for his very informative presentation on how things have changed and improved so much in the Passport Office. When I first became a Deputy I went to the Passport Office. People were frustrated, and the staff were being abused. I felt sorry for the people behind the glass windows there because the arrangements were different then. It takes time to process a passport application, as Mr. Nugent said, particularly to prevent fraud and false identities. We thank Mr. Nugent for bringing in those new arrangements. Obviously they are working well. The passport service is still trying to deal with the situation where a person requires a non-emergency passport at short notice, particularly those going on holidays. We all have to come up with a solution there. If the passport service receives 600 such applications per day that is very difficult to deal with in peak season. I will take questions from members. Could members ask questions rather than make statements?