Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. Some of my questions may seem silly to the witnesses, but I am asking them because I do not know the system. In my first term as a Deputy, the system for Oireachtas Members was in place and it was helpful. One problem is that in the majority of cases people are coming to us as the last resort. They believe we have a magic phone number and can ring somebody to get it all sorted. As I am my party's foreign affairs spokesperson, they believe I have even more such phone numbers and that I have the ear of the Tánaiste, etc. It would be helpful if there was some sort of direct line or someone we could contact directly. While I accept it was abused in the past, it should be looked at again as part of this review.

People often ask Members to sign a passport application form. One of the stipulations is that it needs to be stamped. In some cases people do not need to stamp it, but in some cases people have rung back to say it was not legitimate because it was not stamped. I have also had this with MLAs in the North. As anybody could get a stamp made in this day and age, I wonder if it is really necessary. There is also a difficulty with the requirement to insert a telephone number. The best number on which to get me is my mobile phone number, which is probably true for the majority of people. I can insert the office number but I can only be contacted during office hours. In some cases officials have rung me back to say using a mobile number is not permissible.

People the North praise the Passport Express service, which I believe is available in 15 places in the North. However, there is no such service in Dungannon, which is a big town, and the people there would like to have it. Given that the Passport Service knows the areas where there is demand for passports, would it be possible to expand to other locations in the North.

Many people want to use the Irish form of their name and there seem to be difficulties with that in the North and also in the South. It is necessary to prove the applicant uses the Irish form of his or her name but there are difficulties in that regard. Historically in the North there would have been difficulties with people using the Irish form of the name. They would not have had it on other documentation, but perhaps for security reasons or colloquially they are known by such names. Perhaps Mr. Nugent might be able to address the matter.

Mr. Nugent has referred to people living outside Ireland in places such as London. However, for those living in Britain the further a person is from London the more difficult it is particularly in emergency situations. For those living in Liverpool, Birmingham or Scotland that contact is harder. Is there any equivalent to the passport express facility available in Britain or are there discussions on introducing such a facility?

Certain individuals may require a certified copy of a passport. I know of a person who was advised that only a solicitor could authorise a certified passport. He was told he could not get it from the Department directly because the Department was not in a position to declare it was a genuine document even though the document came directly from the Department. He had to get a solicitor to authorise it and go back to the Department, and it ended up costing him €120 for three copies. That may be somewhat unusual but it is still a problem.

There is difficulty in accessing services outside normal business hours, particularly at the weekends. In some cases Deputies might contact the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade number, particularly in emergency situations. Sometimes we find ourselves in a queue and there is no direct number. It is always at the wrong time - when people are off or on a bank holiday. Can anything be done in that regard?

Mr. Nugent spoke about the design of the passport, incorporating a quotation from James Orr, but there are no images from the North.

Why is the PPS number not on the passport? It is a person's identifier. Commentators say that whereas one's name is important to oneself, in the case of one's passport it is becoming less important than one's generic number, biometrics, etc. Could there be greater flexibility in that regard? This also refers to the Irish matters.