Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent)
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77. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the reason a passport, which is out of date for more than five years, is seen as a first-time passport; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13512/23]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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An adult whose passport has expired more than five years ago will need to apply for their next passport as a first time applicant if their expired passport was issued more than 15 years ago.

All passport applications are subject to the provisions of the Passports Act 2008, as amended. Section 8 of the Act provides for the processing of personal data by the Passport Service as required for the issuance of passports and the maintenance of the integrity of the Passport Service system.

In order to comply with its obligations under data protection legislation, the Department will hold data which has been collected for the purposes of processing an application only as long as there is a business need to do so in line with the purposes for which it was collected.

In the case of passport issuance, the data will be held by the Passport Service for 15 years after the date of issuance, as stated in the Passport Service's Data Privacy Notice. After this time the data will be marked for destruction and will be destroyed in line with internal guidelines or guidelines for destruction received from the National Archives. A minimum amount of personal data is held beyond this period for the purpose of fraud prevention in order to maintain the integrity of the Passport Service system.

Under Section 7 of the Passports Act, the Passport Service may require the applicant to produce such documents as are considered necessary for the purposes of issuing a passport. In the case of applicants who are applying after more than 15 years since the issuance of their last passport, it is also possible that documentary requirements may have changed since the issuance of the last passport.