Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Committee on Public Petitions and the Ombudsmen
Engagement with the Office of the Ombudsman
2:00 am
Mr. Ger Deering:
Passports, yes. It really has to do with the number of transactions. For example, the Department of Social Protection does something like 80-something million transactions a year, so it is understandable that it is up there. Similarly with passports, I think it is more or less directly related to Brexit. A lot of people now are seeking passports. I would not say all of the complaints are in that space but a lot of the complaints relate to the people applying for new passports for the first time. When people are renewing passports it is done very quickly but there are issues. We are receiving complaints in that space.