John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 44 and 47 together.

The Passport Service, located in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, is one unified service composed of three constituent offices located in Lower Mount Street, Dublin, Balbriggan, County Dublin, and South Mall, Cork. The Passport Service operates three passport printing machines, two of which are located in the main production facility in Balbriggan, County Dublin, with the third located in the passport office in Mount Street, Dublin.

Passport applications from citizens residing in Ireland and throughout the world are distributed for processing across the three passport offices. All passport applications are processed through the centralised automated Passport Service system. All production facilities can print a passport irrespective of the channel through which the application was processed. This printing system allows for flexibility between printing machines if any one machine has reached capacity. Each passport printer has a printing capacity of 250 passports per hour. The purchase cost of a new passport printing machine alone is in excess of €1.7 million. This does not include the cost of security, maintenance, technical fit-out, staffing and rental costs, which would bring the total cost to well above €1.7 million.

The production processes and administrative arrangements within the Passport Service are kept under constant review. The three current printing machines are meeting the Passport Service printing demands and have additional capacity. I am satisfied that the printing capacity of production equipment currently employed by the Passport Service is sufficient to meet current and anticipated future demand for passports. There are no plans at this time to commission any additional passport production equipment or sites.

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