Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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I will start with passports. Our constituency offices are a barometer of what works and what does not. People come into us when something does not work. Elements of something might work very well while other aspects do not. We all have the personal experience of people coming to us. The Department indicated earlier that no one had failed to travel where they had a requirement, but I have had a few. I had someone who could not get a passport and missed a wedding. I have had one or two other cases within the last year which would fall into that category. It is not always entirely the Department's fault if someone looks at his or her passport a week or two before an event, but I have seen cases where it was a couple of weeks before but the person still did not manage to travel. One particular case sticks out because it was felt to be very hurtful in the family.

Certainly, the online process is working and making a significant difference and I am very pleased to see that the service has been expanded. The reason people come to our office due to passport express service is because the word "express" and the timelines given give rise to an expectation that people are within time. However, it then goes a week or two beyond the date but the person has not sent in his or her travel documents as he or she expected fully to receive the passport back within the timeline. When they cannot get through to the passport office, they get on to us. That is the scenario. As such, something must be done to address the communications issue where there is an expectation that it will take longer than the stated time. It is taking up to eight weeks to get a passport. It would be useful to communicate that if people are going to travel within eight weeks, they should forward their travel documents. That would allow the office to determine the applications where it will run into a difficulty.

This is the experience we have had. As much as some people believe politicians want constituents to keep queueing up and coming through our doors to access passport services, that is actually not the case. We want the systems to work for people. The issue is one of identifying solutions.

There has been a sizeable increase in the numbers of passport applications arising from Brexit. Ireland is in a very precarious position because of Brexit. I presume these numbers will not tail off but will continue at current levels for some time as British people working in the European Union seek to secure a passport from one of the other EU states. A large cohort of British people would qualify for an Irish passport through Irish parentage rules. Has the service been future proofed in terms of staffing? How is this being handled? Have the increases been projected out in terms of increased staff and, if so, will Mr. Burgess tell us about this?

Irish passports are sought after and important internationally. They are European Union passports. Obviously, they are sometimes lost or stolen and, possibly, misused. How does the Passport Office deal with that issue? Does it have a unit or section that deals with it? Are there costs associated with this? Is the theft or misuse of an Irish passport solely a matter for the criminal code of the jurisdiction in which it takes place?