Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I thank my colleague, Deputy O'Shea, for raising this question. I am pleased to say the passport service is delivering passports to our citizens within advertised turnaround times and, in many cases, well before their due date. More than 580,000 passports have been issued this year to date.

The public offices in Dublin and Cork operate an urgent appointment service for renewal applications. The Dublin office offers one-day and four-day turnaround services, while the Cork office offers a four-day turnaround service. Our records show that, between the two locations, just 1.6% of all passport applicants avail of this service. So much is done online now. That is a key point. During 2024, there were an average of 240 appointments available in Cork each year. Throughout that year, however, only 26% of appointments available in Cork were taken up. We have significant spare appointment capacity, which is a good thing. It means the system is working well.

Currently, the passport service operates three passport book printing machines, with two in the main production facility at the Balbriggan campus and the third in the Dublin Passport Office, which is near Leinster House, on Mount Street. The printing and dispatching of passports are a highly automated process in what is an industrial production system. The passport service estimates the initial capital cost of purchasing and installing a new printer and mailing machine to be approximately €5.3 million. In addition to this are costs associated with capital investment and the requirement for expert engineers on site. The running and maintenance costs alone are estimated to be a further €600,000. For these reasons, I need to give further consideration to this because the service is working reasonably well. While I will consider this matter, I am not in a position to commit to it now.

I am pleased to say that we are increasing our presence in Cork. We are increasing the number of people working in the Cork office, with a new premises at Navigation Square in Cork city identified by the Department and the OPW to house the Cork Passport Office. It will have capacity for 140 staff compared with the 115 staff who are currently assigned. We are moving to a bigger office to increase our staffing levels in Cork. That will happen and I am grateful the new premises has now been identified at Navigation Square in Cork city.

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