Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I start by commending and acknowledging the bravery, professionalism and efficiency of the Dublin Fire Brigade members who dealt with the fire in the Metro Hotel in Ballymun last night. Many of them are still onsite this morning. The dangerous and rapid fire was dealt with by eight units of the fire brigade. The fire started in one of the apartments on the top floor. Units from Finglas, Swords, Tara Street, North Strand, Blanchardstown, Phibsborough and Tallaght were in attendance with over 60 firefighters fighting what could have been a serious blaze.

All of us are grateful and thankful that no one was killed or injured. It shows the fantastic work Dublin Fire Brigade and its firefighters do as well as those from the stations in Skerries and Balbriggan, the retained firefighters, who were brought in to provide cover. We will return to this issue because lessons will need to be learned from this, in particular in the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. Today is not the day to raise those issues but I and my party colleagues will be putting questions to the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, at the appropriate time.

This morning I raise the question of passports which I have raised it on a number of occasions. I refer to the service our citizens are receiving. Last year, as the Tánaiste will know, over 800,000 passports were issued. That was a record. I think all of us expect that will be exceeded this year. That is coming at a price. The increase in passport application numbers is affecting the service the paying public is receiving. I commend the work of the staff in the passport service. However, the reality is that turnaround times have greatly lengthened. The passport service website says 16 working days but it is not. It is 21 working days and longer.

All of us in this House will know of and have received numerous complaints about the service being received by people and over the last number of weeks, in particular.

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