Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 259: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the number of valid Irish passports currently in circulation; the number of passports issued in each year from 2002 to date in 2006; the number of these for each year that were replacements for passports lost or stolen; the cost to the State for each year from 2002 to date in 2006 for running the Passport Office; the number of passports issued from Embassies or Consulates overseas; the number of Embassies or Consulates with the necessary facilities to produce machine-readable passports; the number of diplomatic or official passports in circulation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18183/06]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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It is not possible to be precise about the number of Irish passports in circulation at any one time. However, as passports normally have a ten year validity, a relevant statistic is that between 1996 and 2005 over 4,650,000 passports were issued. But as passports (a) for children under three have only a 3 year validity and (b) between the ages of three and seventeen have a 5 year validity, the above figure clearly over-estimates the situation. The number of passports issued in the years between 2002 and 2006 were are as follows.

The number of passports issued from 2002, on the basis that the previous passports were reported as lost, stolen or misplaced, were as follows.

The number of passports issued by Embassies and Consulates abroad between 2002 and 2005 were as follows.

Since late 2005, when the vast majority of overseas Missions were connected directly to the Automated Passport system, passports are normally issued by the Passport Office in Dublin and returned to Missions for forwarding to applicants, rather than being issued locally as was the case previously.

There are currently 65 Missions which provide passport facilities to citizens abroad. 61 of these are now linked to the Automated Passport system and have the capacity to issue machine readable passports in emergency situations (that is, where there is insufficient time to await the regular passport being issued and returned by the Passport Office in Dublin). It is planned to roll out this facility to 2 more Missions in the coming month, leaving the last 2 Missions to be completed shortly thereafter.

Diplomatic passports are normally issued for a 5 year period. From January 2002 to April 2006 a total of 2,087 Diplomatic Passports were issued. During the same period, a total of 6,897 Official passports were issued, many of which were provided to members of the Defence Forces travelling abroad for peace keeping duties.

The total cost of running the Passport Service, including the four Passport Offices in Cork, Balbriggan, Molesworth Street and London, has been assessed at €30.5 million for 2005. In the time involved, it was not possible to collate precise figures for the previous years but these will be forwarded to the Deputy as quickly as possible.

As I have already announced publicly, I intend to bring forward comprehensive passport legislation later in the year.