Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Daly for his comments on the Middle East peace process. I will continue to ask for support, in particular from the Fianna Fáil Party, to ensure we continue to have a consistent and credible approach to the Middle East and do not do something in the short term which makes Ireland's position less relevant in terms of trying to be part of compromise solutions. I thank Fianna Fáil for that support to date. Sometimes, what is popular here in the short term is not necessarily the smartest thing to do. There may come a time for us to change our policy approach, but now is not that time. That does not mean we should not have intensive political engagement or that we should not be absolutely critical when that is warranted. I hope I have been speaking in a way Irish people are comfortable with in the context of the interest and concern for Palestinians in particular in recent weeks.

I have made it very clear that is unhelpful for people to call for Border polls in the immediate aftermath of a referendum on abortion in Ireland. It is adding to what is an already polarised environment in Northern Ireland on foot of Brexit and its pressures. I have stated repeatedly and I say it again now: constitutional change on this island is not part of the Brexit discussion and it should not be. We are looking for a practical solution to the very complicated and difficult challenges posed by Brexit. We have to try to find a way forward which unionists and nationalists and Ireland and Britain can live with. That is true to the December deal and the agreement in March. We are trying to make progress on that in June so time is short.

According to the latest Queen's University Belfast poll, 85% of people in Northern Ireland want to be part of a shared customs union and shared single market with the European Union. That applies to unionists and nationalists because they are looking for practical ways to protect and maintain the status quo. I am aware of unionist and nationalist fears, each equally genuine. Nationalists want to avoid the re-emergence of a physical border separating them from their own country and unionists fear that new barriers may emerge between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK ,as they see it in an effort to resolve the Irish and island of Ireland issues linked to Brexit. We have many challenges to overcome without introducing calls for a Border poll into the political dialogue which makes the process more difficult given the current environment.

With regard to passports, I thank the committee for its patience on this issue. Last week, 30,000 people called the passport telephone line, which is a huge demand. People are working night and day to deal with passports because turnaround times and so on are of the essence. We are adding staff, taking them from other parts of the Department to have people on the call lines and increase our response capacity to emails and so on. We have tried to be as helpful as we can for emergency cases that come through Deputies' offices but I encourage them to only forward emergency cases because our systems are under some pressure. This is the peak time of year. In six weeks or less, we will be off the peak and will have all the staff and resources that are there today with much less pressure on turnaround times. The turnaround time for processing a passport application depends on the channel through which the application is submitted. The highest proportion of applications is submitted through Passport Express, the postal channel. Passport Express renewal applications are being processed within the target turnaround time of 15 working days. The turnaround times for some categories of application are falling outside the target turnaround times for Passport Express first-time applicants while applications for lost or stolen passports to be replaced are taking longer than the 20-day turnaround time we had but it is generally happening in approximately 30 days. There are practical reasons for that which I do not need to go into.

The online passport application service is a positive story. It has a turnaround time is ten working days plus postage. The majority of online passports are being processed within seven working days, which is ahead of target. That is not to say there are not problems. There has been a significant increase again this year in the number of passport applications from Northern Ireland and from Ireland generally. That is what happens when the economy and population are growing. More people are travelling and, therefore, need passports. Given the Brexit pressures, we are experiencing a significant increase in passport applications from Northern Ireland and the UK. We are at peak and our systems are under pressure. I thank the staff because they are doing a job that is in some ways far beyond the call of duty and we are trying to deal with all the emergency cases that come through Deputies' offices as well. I ask them to bear with us. We are adding staff, we will get on top of this and, as the peak passes, the passport systems will be much smoother for the remainder of the year once we get through the month of June.