Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last year over 900,000 passport applications were made to the Irish Passport Office. Over 94,000 of them came from the North and Britain. In one day in 2018 the office received over 10,000 applications. I acknowledge that currently restrictions are being placed on people and we know about the advice regarding international travel, albeit it is confused and calamitous at times. However, as we navigate a way through the current restrictions people will, please God, begin to travel again and it will hopefully become an important part of life and our economy. Even aside from all of that we all know the importance and the significance of a passport as a form of documentation. The Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has said that Passport Office staff have been facing unprecedented demand and many of us know the first-class work that the staff there do.

I am calling for positive and practical future planning for better infrastructure for our Passport Office and its service delivery. We currently have an office in Dublin and one in Cork. There is an identified increase coming from the Six Counties, from people of every tradition. Brexit is part of that but it is the natural course of things as well. At the minute 19,617 people have signed an online petition calling for a new passport office to be opened in the North that would service that geographical area, from Gweedore over to Warrenpoint. It makes sense, it is a practical call. It is prudent for the Government to plan ahead for what will no doubt be a continued pattern of increase in applications. As restrictions are lifted we will see a further surge. It makes good sense and would be good practice for the Government to plan ahead, to listen to those very rational, reasonable and logical calls for that new service. Initial research has shown that it would be cost-neutral so it would not put any additional financial burden onto the State. It would also create jobs and improve services for us as elected representatives and for the many people out there in the public who have to engage with the Passport Office should a problem arise.