Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I echo that. The sooner people check, the less likely there are to be difficulties. In most instances, the passport service works quite well. It can be very efficient at times, with a significant improvement in recent years, especially for renewals. People are often impressed at the speed at which the passport arrives. This is a huge credit to the staff and the development that has gone in there in recent times.

The issue is that, when problems arise, they can be devastating. Sometimes they can arise in the context of holidays. More severely, it can result in people missing weddings or, most particularly of all, there are issues in circumstances of severe illness, funerals or other things that, unfortunately, happen in the course of life. We need to ensure we have a system that is as close to perfect as possible. There may be a bit of an issue at times in terms of the feedback loop when communicating with Garda stations, but I will return to this point. I would like an update on how the Passport Office responds in these circumstances.

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