Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It was most definitely the summer of the passports. All of us had nail-biting moments and long telephone waits. I thank the brilliant Passport Office staff who went out of their way to help people as much as they possibly could. An incredible 1 million passports will be issued this year. This, in itself, is good news and something to be welcomed. We must also thank the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Coveney, for the response to address the volume of applications. They moved mountains to bring in the resources needed, including the doubling of the number of staff since June 2021.

If I can be excused a pun, I know that the direction of travel is that we are moving towards an online application process for passports. In the North, some 87% of passports issued have originated from the passports online service. I still feel this is an important motion, however, and I support it. I also supported the motion tabled by Senator Wilson, and I think the wording is the same, before the summer recess. The problems I referred to concerning the volume of applications have been addressed. Some 84% of online renewal applications from adults have been issued in three working days or less. Since March, the turnaround time for first-time online applications has decreased by 50%, and now stands at 20 days. Therefore, the problems have been addressed.

At the same time, however, this is a practical issue for people. If people run into problems in this process, then they need to be able to access a physical office for late and urgent appointments. Even though these types of situations account for only 1% of passport applications, those 1% of people require their passports, for holidays or emergency situations, for example, and they really need these appointments. I have been on the phone enough times in recent months to know plenty of people in the North would have benefited from such appointments to try to sort out their passports before they went on their holidays. This then is a practical issue, but it is also one of principle. Based on this aspect, I also support the motion and having a branch of the Passport Office in Belfast. Equally, though, I would also like to see an office in the north west to provide services to the people of Tyrone, Derry and Fermanagh, as well as Donegal, Sligo and Mayo. It is extremely important that we have a geographical spread of these offices so people can have access in emergency situations.

To focus on some other aspects and difficulties in this regard, people applying for Irish passports in the North who went to try to get help from those MPs and the MLAs familiar to them found that even though those elected representatives could witness passport applications, they could not action them. Those of us in this House have access to the helpline, but our elected colleagues in the North do not, and this is an issue which affects them doing their job. It would help if there was a specific email address or phone number for politicians in the North. People trying to submit these passport applications are sometimes in crisis situations and they wish to be able to reach out to the public representatives they are familiar with and that they know will go the extra mile for them. I was delighted to be able to help my family and friends in Tyrone in recent months in this regard.

Turning to Passport Express, people are familiar with this process. When they go to the post office, they like to be able to check that they have everything needed for an application. That human touch is important. I am aware that we are encouraging people to migrate to online services, but, again, from a practical perspective, there are always going to be people who want to have the security, as they see it, of a paper application. The post offices in the North do run out of application forms. This is happening even in areas where it might not be expected to occur.

Therefore, I strongly support this motion. I would love to see a geographical spread of Passport Office locations across the north west, the North, Dublin and Cork. We must be building a shared island. This is what we believe in. We must also be supporting and helping people to get practical access to a service that really matters to them.