Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the points the Deputy has made. The figure of 88,000 this year was very similar to last year due to an intensive advertisement campaign we had before Christmas. We wanted to get people ready, alert and aware so that if they are planning on going on holidays, they should start working now on their passport. That has borne fruit in terms of the surge in passport applications we are currently experiencing, which is a good thing.

Of 1 million applications received last year, 950,000 were issued and 90% of all passport applications were made through passport online. We need to continue to work to get people into the right zone. We need to be slightly careful if we create new classifications. I know the Deputy does not mean this, but somebody could say, "Ah sure, it's fine. There is a category there for the urgent or the less urgent." No sooner would we have the urgent ones done than there is another urgent category that comes after that.

I find the system quite responsive to the kinds of cases the Deputy is raising. It can be a bit difficult getting a new passport for a child. Generally speaking, if we get it early enough the system does respond. The number of same-day public counter appointments in Mount Street increased by 50% in 2023 to 165 appointments available weekly. This will increase by a further 33% to 220 in 2024. About 1% of passport applicants use the urgent appointment service in Dublin and Cork. The contact hub is generally for reassurance. They are not urgent or anything like that; people just want reassurance.

Because of the online transformation, the opening of a physical office is not on the agenda. It will be increasingly online. I anticipate that the figure of 90% will increase. My sense is that the service is responding to the urgent cases. We can examine that further in light of what the Deputy is saying. Between Dublin and Cork, people book appointments to get to see things. I take the Deputy's point that that is not everywhere. Is he coming across cases that are not making it in time?