Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the Passport Office, I agree with all the previous speakers. Who made the decision at the beginning of the pandemic that this was not an essential service? Was it a Secretary General who the Minister has now made an ambassador and who got rewarded for making a mess of the Passport Office?

What really annoys me about government is this. We look at the front page of the Irish Independenttoday and we see Revenue threatening people to pay their property tax, yet we cannot get a driving licence, we cannot get the Land Registry and we cannot get any service in the public service at the moment. I have written to the Minister's Secretary General on five or six occasions. He is on about €211,000 a year. The least I expect from him is to answer my question. I put down questions to the Oireachtas. I would like the Leas-Cheann Comhairle to take this up as I have written to the Ceann Comhairle. I get no reply. I get them bundled into one reply. That is why we had the beef tribunal, because we did not get replies. When I put down a question as an elected representative in this House, I expect to get a reply.

The Minister talks about the emergency passport.

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