Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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148. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade why an application for passports for persons (details supplied) were declined; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11085/16]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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All passport applications are subject to the terms of the Passports Act, 2008, as amended (the Act). This provides a legal basis for the various policies and practices, which are applied by the Passport Service in the issue of passports. It broadly requires that a person must be an Irish citizen; his/her identity is proven; andin the case of a child, the witnessed consent of that child’s guardian(s) is provided.

In the case of the first named person, her naturalisation certificate, dated 12 August, 2015, demonstrated her entitlement to Irish citizenship. However, her application is incomplete in regard to the following requirements of the Act –

Identity: The applicant’s parents have been asked to supply her original birth certificate. (Only original certificates/documents are accepted for passport applications.) This could have verified her name, date and place of birth details. Unfortunately, only a copy of her birth certificate was received by the Passport Service. Alternatively, the national passport from her country of birth, Cameroon, would have been acceptable ID. No such passport has been submitted.

Consent: The witnessed consent of both parents was apparently provided. However, following inquiries by the Passport Service, the witness in question informed that the applicant’s father had not been in his presence when this section of the application form was witnessed. On this basis, the full consent of the parental guardians has not been given.

The Passport Service last wrote to the parents on 25 February 2016 to advise them of the issues above and that the witness date for the original application was over six months and thus out of date. A new and pre-registered application form was sent to them for their completion. This has not been returned.

The current position of the application is that it is not compliant with the Act and cannot progress to passport issue. In order to finalise this application, the Passport Service needs to receive the following:

a new witnessed application form and photographs;

original birth certificate or Cameroon passport (Alternatively, a Public Service card when she reaches eighteen years of age.); and

witnessed guardian consent (until she reaches her eighteenth birthday on 4 September, 2016).

As regards the second named person, there is no record on the passport system for this person.