John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach for his indulgence in allowing me to make those points before I move on to talk about passports, which is an important issue. The other issues that Senator Keogan raised are also important issues. At every stage, important issues are being discussed. I would never consider saying to a Sinn Féin Senator, an Independent Senator or any other Senator that the issue they wish to bring up in this House is invalid or is not of importance compared with other issues. Senators have the right to raise issues and they are all of equal importance. Every issue that is brought up in this House, regardless of who says it or brings it up, has the same level of equity. To turn around and say that an issue is not important based on one's personal view is deeply unfair and goes against the spirit of the House. I thank the Cathaoirleach for his indulgence in allowing me go off on that point.

It is difficult to come into this debate after the Minister has supplied a comprehensive 15-minute reply. I appreciate it. Some of the points I wish to make have already been made. I will try to reiterate them briefly. I thank the Minister for the engagement he has had with us in recent weeks. One of those engagements was about the 40-day turnaround for first-time applications. I appreciate the fact that the Minister is putting a lot of investment into the passport service to try to reduce that 40-day turnaround time. I have spoken to the Minister on this point. I believe it is inherently unfair that if one makes a mistake on an application, the process goes back to the very start and the 40-day turnaround time starts again. I acknowledge that the Minister has said he is trying to rectify and change that. That is a positive step.

One other thing I will say about first-time passport applications is that where a passport is coming to a child, the parents' passports tend to follow a couple of days or a week later. It would make absolute sense for all of those passports to come back at the same time. In my experience, a child's passport often comes back in time for the date of travel but the parents' passports do not. We are then left struggling to get the parents' passports out to them as well. The point is that the parents' documentation comes back a few days after the child's passport. It would be useful to try to get them back at the same time.

The Minister set up an Oireachtas line a number of months ago and I have found that extremely useful. I would like that to continue in some guise for the next couple of months until the passport service is up to the standard the Minister would like in terms of the level of retraining and everything else we want to do to make it a more efficient and smoother service.

I worked for former Senator Paul Coghlan for a couple of years and I had the pleasure of sharing an office with Ms Karen Warren who works for Senator Paddy Burke. She was the absolute passport expert. I learned more about passports through Karen Warren in those three years in that office than at any other time. Perhaps that is testament to why Senator Burke has not lost an election in 30 years. Ms Warren has been a super font of advice for all of us in this House who are not members of political parties. I learned so much from her. The point is that Karen and people in this House know the passport system inside out. The general public do not know the passport system in and out, and it can be very daunting when they make a mistake on an application and are then trying to find out from the Passport Office what the problem is. That is why it is important for those lines of communication from the Passport Office to be open to the public.

The Minister mentioned the number of applications in 2019. I feel for the Passport Office staff who have been under immense pressure over the past 18 months while having to deal with Covid at the same time. It must have felt like a tsunami of applications coming at them. I know it felt in our office as if we were dealing with those issues every day. I pay tribute to the Passport Office staff for dealing with such an exceptional and totally out of the norm level of passport applications. I am pleased to say that in the House.

We have provided a lot of anecdotal evidence in this debate. We have offered some views as to how we can make the system more efficient. I am confident that the Minister wants to make the system more efficient than it is already. He wants to streamline it a bit more and hopefully when that happens, we will not be annoying his good office or the offices of anyone else as much as we are now. I thank the Minister for coming to the House and providing a robust outline of this issue.