Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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With regard to passports and Brexit, I never knew there were so many people living in the Six Counties in Northern Ireland who had cousins in Cavan-Monaghan who all voted for me, when they were looking for passports. Those of us in the Border areas who had some contact with people living in Northern Ireland, regardless of which political tradition they adhered to there, found they were very anxious to get an Irish passport.

In conclusion, and this is probably not directly under Mr. Deering's remit, does he get many complaints from people who are impacted by a lack of confidence in using IT and who cannot get a person to answer a phone in a Department, local authority or public utility? It is shameful the way society today is treating so many people who may not have the skills or the confidence to go online and transact their business. For any of us, when we ring Departments, public utilities or statutory agencies, you press any amount of X, Y, Z buttons and you get talking to nobody. It is very frustrating and very wrong. As a society, maybe we should be taking a look at the responsibility of Departments, statutory agencies, local authorities, the HSE, all the agencies and public utilities to have a proper level of response to people who want to phone and talk to an official rather than being told to go online. The person may not have the confidence to do that. They may be living in an area where they do not have broadband, as simple as that. Do queries like that come to Mr. Deering's office?