Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Is it not the case that the Cork office is the only passport office that does not have a printing facility? Cork and the entire southern region are being placed at a disadvantage. The number of people travelling through Cork Airport has increased from 2.1 million in 2015 to 2.4 million people in 2018. People travelling to and from locations outside the UK accounted for the bulk of this growth and these people need passports.

People from the region want to be able to travel from there through the airports in Shannon and Cork. In the event that they ,have an emergency, they are forced to go to Dublin to get an emergency passport, turn around and come back or not travel from Cork Airport. If we want to have balanced regional development should we not be supporting the regions? That is laid out in the various programmes for Government. Would it not be more suitable for people in the south of the country to be able to get emergency and normal services in their local passport office, which is up and running in Cork? Has there ever been a review of the various options and if not, why?

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