Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)

That is fine but I was attending my aunt's funeral yesterday. What contingency is in place for people who need to travel abroad in the next few days? These people are terrified that there will be an industrial dispute in the passport office by Wednesday next. Are staff going to be deployed in order that applications might be processed? Will provision be made to open the passport office this weekend? Will it be open on a 24-hour basis? The backlog of 42,000 unprocessed applications must be cleared.

See this speech in context