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

We cannot turn Deputies' offices into a passport service. What we do have is an Oireachtas phone line that handles queries. It is not perfect but so far this year more than 10,000 calls have been taken on that line and the customer service hub has handled 95,000 queries this year. It is really busy and sometimes there are interruptions in the system, as there have been over the past few days and when that happens and the public cannot get through on the lines, they contact their local Deputy, understandably, because they need to find out what is happening with their passport application. We are trying to keep those interruptions to a minimum, where possible.

There is an issue with improving the verification process between the Passport Office and Garda stations. It is a particular issue in rural communities where Garda stations are not open for many hours a day. That is an issue the Department discussed today because a number of people have raised it. That said, I must emphasise that we are not doing this for the sake of it. There is a fraud issue relating to passports and there are risks around child abduction. We have to make sure that when we issue a passport for a child, we know who the parents are and we have verification of that from An Garda Síochána. It is really important. When the passport system is under pressure, that is when there will be fraud and criminal activity, with people trying to get passports inappropriately. We have a really good anti-fraud system but it does take time and verification is necessary.

The final point relates to parents correcting applications when they have made a mistake. Approximately 43% of the first-time applications for children that are stuck in the system are stuck because we are awaiting documentation. We have given a commitment that when the documentation is corrected, we will fast-track those applications and get them finalised within 15 days. Previously, the frustration for parents was that the clock started all over again when they made the correction. We are trying to respond to people's genuine queries.

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