Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I also have huge concerns. At the moment, 438 applications from County Carlow on the system have been flagged for documents that the applicant has yet to submit. That is only Carlow itself and with that is the problem of the timescale. People can be waiting weeks to hear from the Passport Office that their documents are not fully complete and that is really unacceptable. I do not like to criticise the Passport Office but we knew this was going to happen. The staff are totally overworked and the waiting time to get an answer on the phone is just not acceptable. This week alone, I had one family who did not make their holiday because they did not get a passport. I have another case where some family members got away but others did not.

The big question I want to ask is about the plans to establish an online portal service in January 2022 that would allow queries for all application types to be submitted directly to the Passport Office by Oireachtas Members to provide additional assistance to citizens. I ask the Minister for an update on that.

See this speech in context