Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the announcement yesterday by the Minister for Transport, Deputy Ryan, on active travel funding. Some €289 million is being spent on walking and cycling across the country. Tipperary was successful and secured €6.6 million, which is very welcome. However, as I stated last week, it is extremely frustrating for us to be told before Christmas that the N24 road project from Cahir to Waterford was being shelved because of a lack of funding. The Department of Transport has lots of money. All we were asking for was €1.5 million to continue the design phase of a strategic route between Limerick and Waterford. I ask the Minister to reflect on that decision, reverse it and continue the investment in the design stage of the N24. It is a key project which needs to be supported. It is all well and good to give €170 million to the greater Dublin area. We are asking for only €1.5 million to continue a road project which is hugely important.

At the weekend, I went to apply for a passport for my two-year-old son's first passport. I visited a pharmacy to get his photograph taken. There was a queue in the pharmacy of people getting pictures, predominantly for young children. I then went to the Garda station with my wife to sign a consent as a guardian. The garda said the station had been inundated with people looking for passports. I then went to the post office where I had the exact same conversation. There is huge excitement with the country reopening. Part of that excitement is people looking forward to the opportunity to travel in the summer. In the next number of weeks, public representatives will be inundated with questions about passports. If we thought it was bad a couple of months ago, the queries will skyrocket in the coming months. In 2020, 450,000 passports were issued. In 2019, which is probably the best barometer, 900,000 passports were issued. It is expected that between 1.3 million and 1.7 million passports will be delivered this year. The majority of those are processed in January and February each year but that will increase this year on the back of the announcement last week and Government advertising on applying for passports.

I welcome that the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, is increasing Passport Office staff by 300, from 600 to 900. That is a 50% increase in staff but we have a threefold or fourfold increase in passports. I ask the Leader to ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs to come to the House to talk about passports as a priority this year in supporting sectors such as aviation as well as travel agencies which have had a difficult two years. I also ask that the appointment of the additional 300 staff in the Passport Office happen immediately. We should look at introducing a seven-day rather than five-day roster system in the Passport Office. This needs to be treated as an emergency in the coming months to ensure that everyone who wants a passport can get one in time in order that we can support the aviation industry and travel agencies and get back to normality.