Rebecca Moynihan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. I always think that debates like this are among the best examples of the Upper House in how passionate people get about passport administration. I thank the Fine Gael Senators for bringing this motion and I commend all the staff in the Passport Office, and across the public service, for their hard work in delivering a timely and efficient service during the pandemic. We all focus on stories where there have been problems and issues, and there have been more problems and issues due to Brexit and the pandemic, but every day thousands of people get their passports done in a timely and efficient manner. For example, just before I came in I was talking to a friend who is getting his child's first passport within a six-week period. I also know someone else who applied on Sunday and got the passport delivered today. During the summer we needed to get my husband emergency travel and we had the passport within two days, which allowed us to travel. I want to put on record how important the work the Passport Office is and how well it manages that work. I particularly want to pay tribute to the clerical officers, who are among the lowest paid in the Civil Service, for putting in the hours and the work and for providing an excellent and efficient service.

I want to focus on one specific aspect of this motion, namely the calls for the Passport Office:

-to consider options that will facilitate the identification of errors in the application in a timely manner allowing for the notification to the applicant of any errors so that they can be remedied quickly; [and]

-to implement a system that allows for the fast processing of additional documents requested by the Passport Service, ensuring that applications that are incomplete are processed within three weeks once the required additional documents are submitted;

That is where people sometimes run into huge difficulties. We know that many people in this Chamber have been contacted by members of the public in recent months who have struggled to get passports, particularly first-time passports, where there have been errors in applications and where people have had great difficulty in moving the process along. In addition, where people are requested to provide additional documentation, including their passports, these documents should be returned promptly. One person who contacted our offices submitted a first-time passport application in April 2021 and she still has not received her daughter’s passport. She has contacted the Passport Office numerous times about this and representations on her behalf to the Minister have not yet been answered. In her words:

It has been 8 months since the original application was submitted and 4 months since the additional documents were added to it. I find such waiting time for verifying documents and issuing a passport as simply unreasonable and unacceptable. I have been talking to many people who are similar to me, and applied for their child's first passport. In each case, their applications were processed within 3-4 months - also during the time of COVID pandemic. I do not understand what would be the reason why the application I submitted takes more than twice this time.

I have been contacting your department many times, more times than I could recall, via phone and webchat. Every time when I tried to follow up on the application status, I have been informed that it "is in progress" [and to] ''keep an eye on the passport tracker'', without any solid explanation why the progress is so unbelievably slow. It's really disappointing that your officers could not even tell me what stage my daughter's application is at. I am left with endless waiting and frustration. As you can see on the screenshot attached, the last update of the passport tracker was two months ago, which is useless as any point of reference.

While applying in April, I would have never thought that my daughter's passport would still not be issued 10 days before Christmas. Because of the sluggishness of your service, we will not be able to reunite with the rest of the family, especially upsetting since my family has never seen my almost 2 years old since she was born.

I mention another incident where I was told the following:

I am emailing you regarding my daughter's passport which I submitted on 7th of August. Your office contacted the passport office a few times in writing and by phone, they were informed that the passport will be ready in the first week of December.

Please bear in mind that I lost my uncle during this wait (September). I asked the passport office to return my passport and explained to them that my uncle is on his deathbed. They told me they will be able to return my passport but it will mean the application will be paused, and upon my return I have to resubmit it again. My father is quite old and I have not seen him for almost two years (due to COVID19 ongoing restrictions on travelling and due to this unexplained delay in my baby's application). This is affecting me mentally as I am living in a fear that I might lose another member of my family without being able to go and see them.

I expected the passport office to return back the additional documents, especially the original ones as they are valuable pieces of documents. I do not think there is a need for retaining additional documents for this long period of time.

When we run into situations and difficult circumstances like that, one can understand some people's frustration with the passport service.

I want to end by commending public servants, including clerical staff and those in the Department of Foreign Affairs, for the efficient service they provide. We are fully supportive of this motion and it is worth bearing in mind how excellent our passport service is. We need to focus on additional information and requests and make sure people are replied to in a more timely and efficient manner because that seems to be where there is a big backlog.