Diarmuid Wilson (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, to the House. I apologise for the interruption earlier. I know it was out of his control as there was a vote in the Lower House. I welcome the Minister of State and his officials. As Senator Ó Donnghaile said in his opening remarks, since last June there has been an all-party motion on the Order Party on this important issue. The fact it has been signed by representatives of all of the parties and Independents shows the significance of this important issue. It is important to point out that the reason the motion was put on the Order Paper, and I initiated it along with Senators Currie and Ó Donnghaile, was to avoid political parochialism. The motion specifically mentions Belfast as the location for an office given the situation we have been in since Brexit and with a population of 1.9 million, and growing, in the Six Counties. The number of applications being sent from the Six Counties to the Passport Office in Dublin for processing increased dramatically over the past two years. More than 72,000 applications were received from the North this year alone.

I appreciate that the vast majority of the applications were made online. The Minister of State agreed in his contribution that first-time applications take a long time to process. This is quite understandable. I understand the majority of the applications from the North were first-time applications. In my opinion, this number will only grow over the years to come. As we are all aware, the 1.9 million citizens in the Six Counties are entitled to apply for an Irish passport, as well as a UK passport if they wish. I respectfully suggest the number of people applying for an Irish passport will increase dramatically in the years ahead. The population of the city of Belfast is almost 640,000 according to the recent census. It would be a sensible idea to open an office in Belfast to facilitate our citizens in making an application. It should be accessible to them in the Six Counties.

I would love a passport office in County Cavan or County Monaghan, preferably in Cavan because it is the capital of south Ulster, but I am willing to concede this to the second city on our island, Belfast. It would be an important thing to do. It does not have to be a huge office. A small office initially would suffice. It is the opinion of the House that this should be considered very seriously by the Government. Of course Galway and other parts of the country are entitled to make their case. As an initial step, the people living in the Six Counties of our island should be facilitated as there will be a huge number of applications from there in the coming years. This is my firm belief and the belief of the majority of people on both sides of the House.

I thank the Minister of State for his contribution. I hope I do not get him into trouble by thanking him personally for the assistance he has given me when helping people who got themselves into difficulties booking tickets and then finding out their passports were out of date. I suggest that at this time of the year, when it is not as busy, the Passport Office should proactively seek applications for passports. We will be back in the same situation next year. I thank the staff of the Passport Office for the great efforts they make to help the citizens of this island on a daily basis.