Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Of the 78,000 applications received from Northern Ireland to date in 2023, almost 70,000 of these were made using Passport Online. The direction of travel is online. The business case just is not there for a physical office. Increasingly, we will be going online. With regard to a physical office, if 70,000 out of 78,000 are applying online, that number is going to increase next year and the year after. Others were looking for an office in the west as well as in the North, but I believe that the business case for physical offices in those locations is receding not only because of the growth of the utilisation of the online service but because of the efficiency of that service and the degree to which people are responding to it.

In an earlier question the Deputy raised the issue of a portal. I believe it is operating, I am told, on a similar basis to the Oireachtas phone line to facilitate MLAs to bring urgent cases to the attention of the passport service. Since its launch on 17 April until 2 June, the passport service has handled 280 queries through the MLA portal. I believe Deputy Ó Murchú had asked that question earlier.

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