John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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66. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the progress being made to enable passport renewals for children to be processed online; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36536/18]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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An online platform for the renewal of adult passports was launched in March 2017 and, to date, over 250,000 applications have been received. The online service has demonstrated efficiencies for both the citizen and the Passport Service with an average processing time of less than 10 working days. Work is ongoing to significantly expand this service to children renewing their Passport as well as applicants who require a name change, an observation on their new passport and those wishing to replace a damaged Passport. We are also developing a system whereby people will be able to provide the documents to support these applications from anywhere in the world. The expansion of our new online services will be launched by the end of 2018.

An extensive engagement campaign will coincide with this launch to promote its use as the fastest and most convenient way to renew a passport. I would urge applicants wishing to renew their passports, whether residing in Ireland or overseas, to avail of the online passport application service where possible.