Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Looking at systems, the vast majority of people, as the Minister rightly points out, do not have to come to us. When a system is operating like that, one always looks for the part of the system that is failing and where the logjams are occurring. I think most of us would say that an awful lot of the logjams relate to children. It seems to me basic, therefore, that if that is correct, a systems analysis be done and any passport for a juvenile should be pre-validated very early in the process. With computers nowadays, particularly with online applications, and most of the cases I deal with are online, all the data, including date of birth, are there. I cannot understand why such applications cannot be pulled out, pre-validated and sorted out. I imagine that the Minister's office would have saved an awful lot of time within his own office and in all the other query offices if we could have taken out all the problems that arose with children's applications forms. The problem is that parents cannot go on holidays without their own children.

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