Results 2,781-2,800 of 8,745 for speaker:Verona Murphy

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (30 Jun 2022)

Verona Murphy: We want the Secretary General. We do not want somebody writing back to say the Secretary General cannot make it. I expect some very good reason if the Secretary General cannot come.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022)

Verona Murphy: I welcome the witnesses to the Committee of Public Accounts. I concur with what Deputy Carthy said about the consular service. In the short time since I was elected, I have dealt with the Department of Foreign Affairs on some very sad occasions on behalf of families. Everybody, from the Minister's adviser, Laura McGonigle, to the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of State, Deputy...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022)

Verona Murphy: So 70% to 80% of passports are applied for online.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022)

Verona Murphy: That is taking only a little over half the staff. Then there are another 300-odd staff who deal with paper applications.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022)

Verona Murphy: The difference is that it takes five days. The witnesses say that, within five days of an application being received, the documents are uploaded. Is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022)

Verona Murphy: The documentation for an application is uploaded within five days.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022)

Verona Murphy: Will Ms Byrne explain what she means when she says "streamlined"?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022)

Verona Murphy: No. Sorry. I am not talking about online applications. I want to know about the streamlining of first-time applications in paper form.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022)

Verona Murphy: In that timeframe, in which of those four weeks are issues flagged? If there is an issue with the application - if the photo or the consent form is wrong - when is it flagged? At what stage?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022)

Verona Murphy: Are we into the second four weeks then? This is where I am just trying to be helpful. It is our experience that there should be a more streamlined process when the documents are uploaded. If the documentation were checked at that stage, it would without a shadow of a doubt quicken the process and hasten any alert to the applicant for further information. Ultimately, it can be nearly eight...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022)

Verona Murphy: Were there problems with that?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022)

Verona Murphy: It took a long time to identify all of these issues and change them. We were weeks into backlogs. I have been dealing with passports since November. My office has been dealing with backlogs daily since last November. Until we got the helpline it was the most arduous process we had to go through given the detail involved and that there is no system by which to correlate the applicant with...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022)

Verona Murphy: No disrespect meant but we have not moved an inch. How many passports were issued annually ten years ago?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022)

Verona Murphy: We are no further ahead if the online process is working as efficiently as it is. I appreciate there are issues but if 70% of the applications are dealt with successfully and only 30% have problems, why are we not dealing with the 30% more efficiently? I do not get it. We have doubled the staff and the funding. The paper system seems to be worse and slower than ever. Do the witnesses...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022)

Verona Murphy: I appreciate that.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022)

Verona Murphy: What I am trying to say, and I do not mean to interrupt Mr. Conlan, is that it is about time. Ten years ago the office did not have the online system, did it?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022)

Verona Murphy: Ten years ago if 700,000 passports were issued, they were paper applications.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022)

Verona Murphy: Today, more than 500,000 of the applications are online. The office is dealing with fewer paper applications now than it was ten years ago. Where is the problem? What is the problem? The office is dealing with fewer paper applications altogether. Does Mr. Conlan understand me?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022)

Verona Murphy: How many staff did the office have ten years ago?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022)

Verona Murphy: Mr. Conlan keeps knocking himself. We now have 846 staff. There is a huge issue from the point of view of value from money. That is my problem. We have an online system on which the Department has spent €13 million and it deals with 60% of the passports. The office has double the number of staff it had ten years ago to deal with half the amount of paper applications and we cannot...