Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

However, on the issue raised by the Deputy, first-time applications take a lot longer and I urge parents of children who have never had a passport to apply now online if they are travelling this year.

We are, of course, looking to bring down the turnaround times for first-time applicants, as well as for renewals, and we are putting a lot of extra staff and resources into that. The Passport Service reports that approximately 40% of first-time child applications are incomplete. However, our records show that this is not due to issues with consent forms, which some people have raised a concern around. In fact, 77% of all incomplete child applications occur when parents have not submitted any documentation to the Passport Service. In these cases, parents apply online for their child's passport and can sometimes take weeks or even months to submit the required supporting documentation, such as a witness consent form, and the child's identity documents, such as their birth certificate. We will be putting more resources into this to try to improve delivery times.

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