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

We have looked at the idea of a passport office in Northern Ireland. The vast majority of applications received by the passport service from applicants residing on the island of Ireland, however, are submitted through Passport Express and Northern Ireland Passport Express. Northern Ireland Passport Express allows applicants living in Northern Ireland to apply for their passport through more than 70 post offices. We are now seeing a big shift online as well. Some 70% of renewals, and rising, are now happening online. A person only needs to go into a passport office if he or she is travelling for emergency reasons and his or her passport is not in date etc. That is a relatively small number of people.

People come to the passport offices in Dublin or Cork for that. It can be a long journey whether people are living in the west or north west of Ireland. That does not mean that we should be opening passport offices all over the country or the island. I will, however, keep this under review. At the moment, however, all of the trends point toward a shift online or to having a fairly efficient express postal system. That will allow us to focus resources on turnaround times and keeping people informed about their applications.

On the repatriation of a person's remains when he or she has died abroad, this is something with which I am currently not so happy. While there is a fund available and we provide some financial resources to the fund, there is a question as to whether the State should do more to help families to bring a loved one home after he or she has passed away. We have had discussions within the Department on the issue and will continue to examine it. There is a constant discussion we need to have about encouraging people to take out insurance when they go abroad and cover themselves for the cost of an accident or fatality. If we make policy decisions to the effect that the State will pick up the tab, people will not take out travel insurance in some cases. There is a competing issue, therefore, because there are some tragic cases in which the State should intervene directly where families cannot afford to bring the deceased home. The approach thus far has been to support a charity that helps to fund the cost for families, which has been the recommendation to me for the reasons I have outlined. In respect of the significant numbers I outlined earlier, some of the cases will be different and will put families under a great deal of financial pressure.