Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Senator McGreehan.

We had considerable issues with the Passport Office going back a number of months and I was one the Members in this Chamber saying that there were significant issues. I am pleased to see that there has been a huge turnaround. Someone very close to me put in an application online on a Friday and it arrived in the post on Monday, which is a remarkable turnaround time. I pay tribute to the Passport Office for listening to the concerns raised by Members in both Houses. Extra staff were put in, they made a real effort to deal with Members, there was a special line for us, and that in itself shows that the office was listening to the concerns. I am disappointed that there is not a piece in the motion looking for a passport office in the west as it is another region of the country where there is no passport office. That is not to take away from the points raised by my colleagues about Northern Ireland; just a point to note. For people in Mayo, where I live, we travel to Dublin if we need an emergency appointment, which is a lot further than getting to Dublin from any parts of Northern Ireland. We are moving into a digital age. In excess of 90% of applications go in online, perhaps even 97%. Therefore we have to justify the cost of opening an office as well. If everyone is online and an office is opened, that is being paid for out of the Exchequer and people's taxes. Nobody using it would be a waste as well. It will be interesting to hear what is the cost involved will be; where it will go; what the usage might be given the number of applications that go in online. We have to bear in mind that people in lots of parts of the rest of the country still have to travel considerable distances for that emergency application, if and when it does arise. To be fair, those appointments are now easy enough to get and the turnaround is pretty good. There will always be that small percentage where the turnaround has not been fantastic but by and large, today it is a very good service.