Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I greatly appreciate the opportunity afforded by the Ceann Comhairle to raise this vital issue. Over the last four months, nearly five months now, the Passport Office has been closed. The reason we are raising this is nothing to do with travel. It is not like anyone is expecting to be going abroad any time soon. It is, instead, the sheer fact that a passport is a vital piece of identification for so many people, not only in this State but also for many Irish citizens abroad. This issue has come to a critical point now where people are desperately in need of getting their passports renewed or their passports back out of the passport system. We are talking about Irish citizens who applied for passports for their children in other jurisdictions and now not only do their children not have identification but they do not either. This is prohibiting those people from doing ordinary, everyday business in this State and wider afield. It is stopping people making many plans and having that form of identification which would allow them to be a part of a functioning society. It is vitally important that the services which are provided are reopened as soon as possible.

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