Ms Fiona Penollar:

It would be a witness, in the same way as now. Currently there is no requirement for the guardians' consent to be witnessed by a Garda specifically, but we really want to target that witness to being someone who knows the child and has interaction with the guardians, for example a person in the child's school or a public health nurse or doctor. A witness from that sphere makes much more sense.

The Deputy asked about the cost per passport. There are many elements that go into processing the passport. For commercial reasons I will not go into the specific costs associated with the actual book cost but it is in the region of €10 per standard passport. A child gets a passport for five years and an adult can get a passport for ten years, so there is proportionally more work in approving a child application. A standard passport costs between €40 to €50, not including the central costs. When that is considered and taken into account, the average cost of the child or adult passport is very similar to the fees charged.