John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is rarely, if ever, a cause for celebration for any Minister when Deputies from every corner of the land, including those in the Minister of State's party, talk in this House about particular topics or issues on which they are being hammered in their constituencies. It is safe to say that passports are among those issues. Although the Minister may choose to differ if he was here, the reality is that the issue of delays in the processing and issuing of passports has found itself in the midst of the national conversation on politics. That is never good news for any Minister.

The passport service was able to give the Minister an estimate of the number of passport applications it expected to receive this year. According to him, that estimate now stands at 1.4 million, with in excess of 190,000 passport applications still to be processed. I have raised the many problems and difficulties with the passport service with the Minister for well over a year and, contrary to what the Minister of State said, those concerns have not been listened to or acted upon. The Minister is more than aware of the scale, nature and detail of the problems passport applicants are experiencing. The Minister's decision to finally act has come about as a result of media and internal party pressure, among other things, and is nothing more than an attempt to deflect attention from his failure to address well-advertised challenges the Passport Office has been facing for a considerable period.

Unfortunately, the Minister is no stranger to failure during this Dáil term. We have witnessed a catalogue of failure and debacle associated with his brief over a sustained period in recent years. His decision to change the title of the Passport Express service to Post Passport is an attempt to more accurately capture the reality of the lack of efficiency offered by the previously titled Passport Express. I wonder whether he gave any thought to renaming it "Passport Pony Express". In fairness, it took Pony Express only ten days to get from the east to the west coast of the US. The Minister insists the service is working well and that targets are being met. I do not doubt the Minister needs to allow himself to believe that, although I doubt even Facebook would be able to come up an algorithm that would have the voracious dexterity necessary to frame the current experience of applying for a passport in Ireland in the type of terms required by the Minister to sell to an unbelieving public.

I have spoken to many people and received countless stories, as I sure the Minister of State has, of individuals who have been left frustrated and in a state of despair due to their experience of attempting to apply for a passport in this State. One individual, who contacted my office in a terrible state, attempted to contact the Passport Office more than 600 times by phone in the course of two days in the past week. On one day alone, he tried calling 378 times as he watched the clock tick down on a flight for a family holiday. Needless to say, he did not get a hold of anyone on the phone. Unfortunately, he and his family never made that holiday away. This is a reality for many that is resulting in considerable financial loss, not to mention the emotional upset of parents having to deal with crying children and the reality that due to the cost-of-living crisis, they might be looking at the last chance for a family holiday for a very long time. In some instances, they are missing out on the first opportunity to meet grandparents, grandchildren or other family members since lockdown.

A survey of applicants has found the average number of phone calls to the Passport Office before they receive an answer is 80. That is the average number of attempts. People simply cannot access accurate information on where their application process is at. They cannot get in contact by phone nor can they access staff through the webchat service. To understand what passport applicants are going through as the target passport issue date passes, the date of their flight approaches and they are faced with the question of whether to cancel requires a degree of empathy for ordinary people, which is something this Government simply lacks in abundance. Time and time again, we witness indifference and a lack of empathy from this Government for the plight of ordinary workers and families. It has to be said it is an absolute disgrace. Rather than meaningfully engage with the issue, and rather than undertake the process of searching for solutions, the Minister has sought to position blame on applicants, stating that up to 40% of forms are being incorrectly completed.

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