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

I would not claim we have a perfect system. We do not. We are improving it all of the time. We are significantly upgrading the software this year, so we will have, in effect a new IT system running our passport system from next year, which will give us a lot more flexibility. It is not a perfect system but we are putting extraordinary resources into ensuring that we have turnaround times that compare very favourably internationally.

I would like to give the Deputy a sense of what other countries experience, countries that we would regard as being towards the top of the class in terms of the delivery of passports. In the UK, turnaround times are officially four to five weeks, but the UK's passport service published a guidance that currently states all applicants should allow ten weeks for processing all kind of applications. The US wait is eight to 11 weeks. In Australia there is a wait of six weeks. In Canada the wait is four weeks.

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