Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the efforts of my staff and of all parliamentary staff on all sides of the Houses. It has been very stressful for them and they have borne the brunt at the front line in hearing the stories and taking that stress on themselves to get the issues resolved. If the Minister is considering moving the Cork passport office, he is more than welcome to move it to Kerry, if he so wishes. There is plenty of space and there are plenty of buildings down there.

I do not know if he has any information as to what the costing of the printing facility is or what the full-year cost of installing such a facility is. Obviously, the facility has to be run as well, so it is not as simple as buying a machine. I do not know if the Minister has information on that. He referred earlier to the amount of printing going on in Dublin. That is great, but in emergency situations and for one-day renewals, not having to travel to Dublin and having an office in the southern region would be massively important and a great service for people in difficult circumstances. I emphasise that these are not just people going on holidays; they are also people who have unfortunate sudden bereavements or other emergencies. At such very stressful times, having a service locally would be very important.

See this speech in context