Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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707. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade when a person’s (details supplied) original passport will be returned to them; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19277/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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With regard to the specific application about which the Deputy has enquired, the Passport Service has returned the requested document to the applicant. 

Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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711. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will liaise with the Minister for Social Protection with regard to putting legislative provisions in place specifically to grant authority to Passport Office office staff involved in the processing of passport applications, access to the General Registration Office data on births, deaths and marriages to verify information on applications and eliminate the need for applicants to send in original copies of various certificates and thus improve turnaround times in application processing and eliminate the need for certificates to be posted back to applicants (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19348/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department’s ongoing Passport Reform Programme is continually working to deliver a fully integrated service, which is more efficient, predictable and citizen-focused, while also maintaining the integrity of the Irish passport through enhanced fraud measures. 

As part of the Passport Reform Programme, staff from my Department are in early discussions with counterparts in the Department of Social Protection and the General Register Office (GRO).  These discussions are focused on areas of cooperation that could increase the efficiency of the passport application process through a potential reduction of paper processing. These initial discussions are focussing on the feasibility of electronic access to GRO records for the purposes of passport processing. 

The exact technical arrangements and timelines for this level of integration are still under consideration. My Department will continue to increase internal efficiencies and improve the customer experience over the coming years under the Passport Reform Programme.

With regard to the specific application about which the Deputy has enquired, the Passport Service has issued a passport to the applicant.