Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I hear the Deputy. We are continuing to do everything we can to reduce the number of people who ever need to travel for an in-person appointment. I am really encouraged to see that that is less than 2% of people. It is quite incredible. We have spare capacity for the appointments in Cork today. Only about 26% of the slots in Cork are being used. I join with the Deputy in saying that is not by accident but is a testament to the incredible work of the people in the passport service. It is not that long ago that, after the Covid backlog, trying to get a passport was a real challenge for many of our citizens. We often quite rightly criticise some of the reform programmes, which can be quite challenging. The passport reform programme has gone very well. I was in the Balbriggan office and met Deputy O'Reilly there not that long ago. A great team of people is doing really good work there. I thank them for that.

See this speech in context