Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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1218. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the reason additional charges by way of administration fees for passports are applied in addition to the standard passport charges; the reason the additional charges amount to an effective surcharge of 56% on the cost of a child’s passport; if these additional charges can be avoided; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34799/14]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Applications submitted through the public counters incur an additional fee of €15, which is €5.50 more expensive than those applications submitted through Passport Express, allowing for the Post Office charge of €9.50. The new fee was brought into effect by the Statutory Instrument 47 of 2011, which was advertised in the national press before its implementation on 11 April 2011. The difference in the fees charged is designed to encourage people to submit their applications through the Passport Express Service. The logging of the application by the Post Office enables the Passport Service to provide a much more efficient service of registration, tracking and production than applications submitted through the public counter. However, it is ultimately the choice of the customer which service they select.

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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1219. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the way the reconfiguration of passport services has affected the range of services available at the passport office in County Cork and the improvements in the processing times for passports achieved by reorganisation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34800/14]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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I can confirm that there has been no reconfiguration of services in the Cork Passport Office. Accordingly, all services which had been available in that office at the start of the year continue to be provided. However, earlier this year, the Passport Service introduced an appointment system for quick turnaround at the Passport Office in Cork. This system, which had already been running successfully in Dublin, allows customers to book, via a simple web based system, guaranteed time slots before travelling into the Passport Office. The priority in the system is given to those with urgent travel needs and all others are encouraged to use the passport express service. This is a customer-orientated service removing the necessity for the public to queue in the passport office as they have an allocated time in the office for their passport application submissions.