Patrick Nulty (Dublin West, Labour)
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152. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if an application for passports by a person (details supplied) in Dublin 15 will be expedited, in view of the urgent circumstances; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18247/13]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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The parents of the person in question applied to the Department for a passport for their son on 21 March, 2013. The application was made through the Passport Express service which is a ten working-day service for properly completed applications. Under this service, the Department was obliged to issue a passport to the applicant no later than 5 April, 2013 if the application was in order. The first of these related to the lack of documentation to demonstrate the child’s entitlement to Irish citizenship, which is a primary requirement under the Passports Act, 2008. The second concerned the incorrect completion of the declaration section of the application form by one of the applicant’s parental guardians.

The Department rang the applicant’s father on 5 April to inform him of these problems. He was advised of the additional documents which were needed to resolve the citizenship problem. He was also told that a new completed and correctly declared form and new witnessed photographs were required. These were brought to the Passport Office in Balbriggan on 12 April, 2013. The additional information and the new form were sufficient to issue a passport. However, there was not sufficient time to enter this new material into the automated passport system to produce a full passport that day. An emergency passport was, therefore, issued to the applicant in order to facilitate the family’s travel plan for 15 April, 2013.

In the meantime, the application has been finalised and a passport has been produced. The Passport Office in Balbriggan has made further contact with the applicant’s parents to arrange the return of the valid emergency passport for cancellation and the issue of the applicant’s full passport.