Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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236. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade whether the Passport Office in Dublin can no longer take the credit card details that are on passport application forms in view of the fact that they cannot manually input the details into the credit card machine; if so, his plans to rectify same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50313/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Passport Office offers applicants a number of options for paying passport application fees, depending on which application method is used. For applications made in person at the Dublin or Cork Passport Offices, card payments may be taken only where both the card and the card-holder are present, with payments taken through secure chip & PIN terminals. Other means of payment such as cash, postal orders or bank drafts are also accepted.

Passport Express is currently the most popular channel through which the Passport Office receives application. Payments for such applications are made directly through An Post at the time of submission. In that case, as any card payments are made by applicants in person at the Post Office, manual inputting of details by the Passport Office does not arise.

The online passport renewal service, which was launched in March of this year, takes secure payment by card online.

With the exception of a small number of overseas missions, where current practice is under active review, the Passport Office no longer accepts credit card details written on passport application forms for payment.