Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have had a very positive discussion from all sides of the House. It is always a good sign when Senator Gavan is agreeing with the motion and welcoming it. In fairness, he and his colleague Senator Ó Donnghaile brought up some very good points about MLAs and people in Northern Ireland who would like to use the passport service.

The Minister perfectly explained in his contribution the demands facing the passport service over the next year. Over 100,000 applications are being processed very month. It is a phenomenal number of passports to be dealt with. The service the Passport Office provides is hugely significant and hugely important to everyone. This debate has raised awareness for people who might not be aware of the importance of getting a passport. The Department is also running a campaign reminding people of that. The increase from 47% to 90% in the percentage of people applying for passports online shows that people listened to the advice given. We need to get that information out there and remind people that it is much easier to do an online passport application. It is certainly much easier to facilitate and help when there is an issue, as opposed to paper applications.

This has been a welcome and informative discussion. The Minister has given some new information that we were not aware of about the immediate pressures and demands the Passport Office is under. The news of the staff out in Swords and the ramp-up of staffing levels is welcome. I acknowledge the announcement the Minister made about the service operating seven days a week. That happened during periods of 2021 but from this week on overtime will again be facilitated within the Passport Office, which is hugely important. If the public representatives here today have one objective, it is to try to get a contact number for Ms Byrne, now that we know she is actually the key person here as opposed to the Minister himself.