Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

"Do not send them" is definitely the advice to give. However, on first-time applications there is an estimated date, and people come to us worried about whether they will get the passport in time. There could be an estimated date, say, in the middle of October or the middle of November, and someone could be applying a week after the estimated date. We politicians cannot do anything about it until the estimated date has passed. Is there some leeway - well, not leeway, because I understand that there are technicalities to first-time passports, which is really important, and they are some of the safest passports in the world and are recognised as such. However, we cannot make any representations to the Passport Office until that estimated date passes. Sometimes that leaves a gap of only a day or two to try to get a passport done on time. If there were any sort of leeway that could be given on that in the future, that would be helpful. In fairness, however, the work that has been done in recent months has been incredible.