Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is right. As we are talking here today, there is a backlog of 113,000 applications. Can the Minister imagine that? Something needs to be changed in regard to the parent consent form because that is where most of the difficulty is, and the application is being sent back due to a lack of information or because there is something wrong with that parent consent form.

That needs to be streamlined or something needs to be done to change it in such a way that it will be more effective. One poor man applied to renew his passport before Christmas. His children bought him a ticket. He had not travelled for more than ten years. That is deemed to be a new application. I cannot understand why it should be. When he had a passport before, what is the difference between nine and 11 years? I ask the Minister to address that issue too.

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