Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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436. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade further to Parliamentary Question No. 90 of 19 October 2022, if he will provide the analysis of estimated costs to establish and run an additional Passport Office in Northern Ireland. [54595/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Approximately 10% of total applications received by the Passport Service are submitted by applicants resident in Northern Ireland. 87% of these applicants apply through Passport Online.

Currently, the Passport Service is issuing passports to 84% of adult online renewal applicants and 50% of child online renewal applicants within 3 working days or less. 60% of online applications submitted by applicants resident in Northern Ireland are renewal applications.

The Passport Service continuously considers ways that it can improve its service to all of our citizens regardless of where they live and regularly reviews the range of passport services on offer while also strategically planning to respond to future needs.

The passport offices in Mount St and Cork have public counters and offer an urgent appointment service for those who wish to renew their passport within one or four days in Dublin or within four days in Cork. Passport Service figures show that only 1% of the total of all passports produced by the Passport Service are issued through these public counters.

An office in Northern Ireland to process and produce passports in emergency and expedited situations would require significant expenditure across staffing, equipment and operational aspects.

Estimates based on current prices indicate that the costs associated with equipment, staffing and operational elements could be in excess of 10 million.