Ms Siobh?n Byrne:

Regarding appointments at the public counter, to facilitate as many people as we can, we process renewal applications because first-timers are complex to process. The majority of people who come into the public counter are like the Deputy, who looked at his passport, realised it was out of date, applied online and got his passport when he was travelling. That is the majority of people at the public counter and that is the purpose of it. First-time applicants are a little bit different. They know they do not have a passport so we advise them to apply in time before they book travel and try to have it before they book a flight.