Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

The Minister indicated in his response that more than 500,000 passports were issued last year, with approximately 81,000 of those issued through the diplomatic service abroad. I understand an extraordinarily high figure of some 35,200 passports were either lost, stolen or misplaced up to 4 December 2009. Has the Minister any indication of how many of these lost passports are part of the 81,000 issued abroad? Has he any proposals to reduce the number of misplaced passports, which equates to almost 7% of the 500,000 issued? It is worrying that more than 35,000 passports have fallen out of their owners' hands at a time when there are such concerns about international terrorism and security. That figure is startling.

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