Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. I thank Fine Gael for bringing forward this Private Members’ business. There is nothing unusual in this, nothing exciting about it, and it is very obvious. Clearly, I took some time to look through the parliamentary questions. The Minister has answered a hell of a lot of parliamentary questions in the Dáil in regard to all of this, and all of these things are replicated here. He has done an awful lot of work and he has got a lot of queries about it.

Why are Deputies and Senators spending so much energy and time chasing passports? It is ridiculous. I have made representations myself. We come under pressure and we are asked to speed up something, and I always say that I can speed up nothing. I can drop a letter or an email and I can make an ask but, ultimately, it is very important that we ensure the integrity and the safety of our passport system. I do not doubt its integrity as it is an excellent system but we need to use this opportunity to spell it out. Let us try to move away from the parochial nature of lobbying on behalf of people for passports or, dare I say it, making representations. I accept we are very close to the people and that one of the great things about Irish politics is that we live within our constituencies, close to the people we represent. That is a good thing and I do not want to knock that in any way. However, if we are reviewing the whole passport issue, it is time that we clearly identify and be up straight and honest with the citizens of this country about the functions and powers we have, and this is one of them. That is a common view among people on all sides of the House who have discussed this matter with me.

I want to thank and acknowledge the Minister and his staff in the Department of Foreign Affairs and our network of embassies and consulates which meet the ever-growing demands associated with passports. I welcome and fully support this Private Members’ motion and have no difficulty with it because it is timely that we are having this discussion. The motion calls on the Government to redouble its efforts to ensure that the passport service is functional, effective and efficient as anticipated demand rises. I think it is functional, effective and efficient and I would not like anyone to suggest it is not. We had Covid and we had issues, and staff in the Department suffered the same set of circumstances that we suffered. Yes, there are difficulties and frustrations, but I know from checking through on a number of these that when we actually go back to people, we find they did not provide the proper details, did not fill out the form completely, the photograph was slightly incorrect or there were issues. We all make mistakes and I make mistakes, but it is important to acknowledge this. I want the message to go out loud and clear to the Department that it is effective, efficient and functioning, and that should be acknowledged. Yes, there were setbacks and difficulties, but I want to point that out.

The motion refers to increasing the number of administrative and managerial staff within the passport service. That is a functional matter for the Department, not a matter for us. The operations of the Department and the deployment of its staff are wholly an internal matter for the Department. The motion also refers to engaging in a public information campaign. That makes very good sense, as does having the alert systems in place that Senator Ahearn talked about. It is a very good idea. If most of us were asked where our passport is now, we would most likely say it is somewhere in a bedroom or in a drawer, and we could not say when it expires. I do not even know when mine expires but I will be checking that when I get home this evening.

I want to suggest a few things. The eight-week period for the An Post mail Passport Express service is too long. It is a good service. At a time when many people do not have IT skills and there are many who do not have IT systems, the role of the post offices, or the few that are still left around the country, is important for people who like to do their business there. It is a good mechanism but eight weeks is a long time. As Senators Ward and Ahearn alluded to earlier, the issue was one of validating the passport. From my experience of the people I have made representations for, the problem is that weeks go by and then they open up this An Post mail service and discover there are some shortcomings in the application and they go back to nought again. Early validation of applications and renewals is critical, and both Senators make that point.

In regard to the issue of fraud detection, it is vital that we maintain the integrity of the Irish passport system to ensure its security for travel across the world. In one of the responses last year in the Dáil, the Minister elaborated on the need for reform. He mentioned in the Dáil that he was putting emphasis on core technology and underpinning that technology in the passport service. He said that the current system was originally launched in 2004 and that it was due to be replaced with the more modern integrated system by the end of 2023. I do not know how that is progressing because, obviously, everything has fallen back a bit. The Minister might elaborate about that in his response.

I thank the Senators and I fully support this timely motion. My real call today is for us to get away from making representations on passports and let us get a system that is faster. That is the problem. We need a speedier system. If there is a flaw or a shortcoming in the application, early validation and early confirmation is the key to addressing this issue.