Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister said he is not ruling out increasing the footprint across the country, but let us take the example of somebody living in Clifden who needs an emergency passport.

He or she travels through the county and arrives in Ballinasloe, halfway to Dublin but not having left the county. If a child needs an emergency passport, both parents have to take time off work to get it. Their options are to go to Dublin or to Cork. People are asking me why we cannot have a passport office in the west of Ireland to serve areas from Limerick to Donegal. We are not looking for something major. It is about having that service locally, which would help people who are under severe pressure when problems arise.

For the past month, phone calls to the Passport Office have been going unanswered. I accept that the situation in that regard is improving but there is frustration. The people phoning the Passport Office need to speak to a member of its staff. Many of my constituents have travelled to Dublin just to go into the Passport Office to try to find out what is going on.

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