Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy McCarthy. I will check with the Passport Office if it plans to look further at that. There is always a passport reform process under way. We have seen a number of reforms. We have come a very long way from the Covid backlog and all the challenges then to now having a system that is very efficient. It is a good example of public service reform and also of digitisation. I meet so many of my constituents, and I remember this from getting my own passport, who say you take the picture on your phone while standing in your kitchen, send it off online and you are often shocked at how quickly the passport arrives in the post. That is not to say there cannot be improvements. I hear stories from colleagues about how the process interacts with the gardaí who are witnessing the forms. Gardaí are very busy so are there better ways to do that. There are challenges, and rightful ones, about making sure we have very robust procedures for getting a first-time passport for a child because we need to get child protection right. Then there is the point the Deputy made about when is a passport considered a first-time passport for an adult as well. Let me take that point away, examine it and give it some consideration. We are in a reasonably good space here and I thank all of the staff who worked to make that a reality.

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