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

The Minister for Foreign Affairs knows I am not critical of the people in the Passport Office. The opposite is the case. I am grateful for their excellent work but they are under severe pressure. I will give a quick example related to the telephone line for Deputies. Since 17 March, I have called three times about a passport that has been overdue since then. It has been with a checker with three weeks. In another case, where the name is withheld, the passport has been overdue since 4 April and nothing is happening with it. Another one involves passports for a family of three children, all of which have been overdue since 26 April. A number of calls have been made about this case. The family have missed their flights and still do not have passports. Like everybody else, I am inundated with these queries. I know the Minister is under pressure about this service but we have to do better than we are at present, when there are 200,000 people waiting.

I will make a suggestion with which I am sure everyone will agree, including the Ceann Comhairle.

The Ceann Comhairle is here long enough to remember when there was a service located just down the street that dealt with passport queries from Oireachtas Members. One might ask whether that was-----

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