John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

When I walked from my office to this Chamber I had to walk past the Dáil Chamber and it is great to see Deputies working side by side. I know that arrangements are under discussion but I think the sooner the Seanad gets back to normal the better. We should set the standard as soon as possible because it does not make sense that we are social distancing here yet a couple of yards down the hallway things are back to normal.

I wish to follow up on what was said by Senator Cummins and to refer to one of the things that is really unfair about the passport system. For first-time applicants it takes 40 days, which is fair enough, particularly as there are many child protection issues. However, if a mistake is made when filling out the form, and it could be a simple and genuine mistake, the application must go straight back to the back of the queue and wait another 40 days. The other day a person came into my office and asked me to sign their passport application form. I was absolutely terrified of signing their form in the wrong place for fear of creating a delay. If we are going to reform the passport system, then we should create an appeals process. We should ensure that when a mistake is made that an application is not sent back to the start of the queue and ensure we avoid delaying a child's first passport by 80 working days.

Finally, I would appreciate if at some stage we could have a debate on the concept of a one-stop-shop for climate action. It is an initiative that will be introduced in the next couple of months in local authorities. It will mean that members of the public can walk into one of these offices and get good up to date advice about climate energy and efficiency savings that they can do in their house, how they can sell energy back to the grid when that is announced, and get information on a whole variety of things like Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, grants. I would appreciate a debate on that at some stage in the future.