Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am disappointed the Minister, Deputy Coveney, is not here. I thank the Minister of State for his response, although it was not even up to date. I am dealing with a family who are due to travel on Thursday next. They have been told their baby's passport will not issue in time, even though it will have been in the system for eight weeks. My office was told earlier by the special helpline that has been set up at the Department that the current timeframe is actually ten weeks.

I have been listening to the excuses relating to Covid since April, when the Minister gave that commitment in respect of the then backlog. This is not happening anywhere else in the western world that I am aware of and I have checked with former colleagues in the European Parliament. No other European state is dealing with such a backlog. It is unfathomable to most of the colleagues I spoke to that people would have to contact their elected representative to find out when their passport will issue.

In respect of the information the Minister sent us earlier about a Department helpline, that helpline will be pointless if cases such as these cannot be addressed. If the responses to queries are simply a rehashing of information on the website, it will be a waste of resources and will only add to the frustration people are going through. The purpose of such a line must be to assist the Department in receiving details of urgent cases and then being able to act accordingly.

The Minister of State, on behalf of the Minister, stated additional staff were assigned to the Department during the summer. Will he tell the Minister to reassign them to the Passport Office to clear this backlog? These are tragic human stories. It might sound mundane, given we are, in some cases, talking about holidays, but there are reasons behind all this and people should be able to expect a reasonable service, which they pay for in terms of their passport delivery. Will the Minister of State bring that message as forcefully as he can to the Minister?

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