Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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93. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to provide the number and detail of the public helplines operated by his Department; whether calls are recorded on each helpline; and if not, whether he would consider recording calls for transparency and training purposes. [29994/24]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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In addition to its main telephone line, the Department of Foreign Affairs operates five dedicated public helplines and an out-of-hours emergency line so that citizens in Ireland and across the globe can seek emergency consular assistance.

The main telephone line of the Department is +353 1 408 2000. Outside of normal working hours, this telephone line operates as the out-of-hours emergency helpline to provide assistance to citizens requiring urgent consular assistance.

The Customer Service Hub of the Department, which covers enquiries regarding passports, foreign birth registration and consular matters, is also accessible via the Department of Foreign Affairs' general line. The Customer Service Hub can also be contacted directly.

The Passport Service Customer Service team is contactable on +353 1 671 1633 and via the WebChat service: from Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. The Foreign Birth Registration service helpline is contactable on +353 1 568 3331. Calls and chats conducted on both of those lines are recorded for training and quality control purposes.

The Department's Consular Directorate operates a dedicated consular assistance helpline from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday, contactable on +353 1 4082527. The Consular Directorate also operates a dedicated line for Authentication and Apostille services which operates from 09.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. every weekday on +353 1 408 2174 and a dedicated line every weekday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on 01 +353 1 408 2523 for Marriage Abroad queries.

Calls to the consular assistance helplines are not recorded but I assure the Deputy that the Consular Directorate regularly reviews its policies and guidelines on the provision of consular assistance to citizens and that officials of my Department working on these helplines receive regular training to ensure the delivery of high quality professional customer service to citizens and customers

Further contact details for my Department are available on the following gov.ie webpage: