Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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200. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the number of passports revoked by his Department in the past 20 years to date; and the reason for each time a passport has been revoked. [13064/25]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Passports Act 2008 provides for a number of circumstances under which the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade may cancel an Irish passport, including:

• where the Minister becomes aware of a fact or a circumstances that would have required or permitted him to refuse to issue the passport to the person had the Minister been aware of the fact or circumstance before the passport was issued.
• where the citizenship of the person has been revoked or renounced.
• on grounds of national security, public order, or public safety.
• for the purpose of securing the welfare of a child in specific circumstances.
• where the passport is, without lawful authority or reasonable excuse, in the possession or control of another person.

The Integrity Section of the Passport Service was established in 2015 to improve all aspects of fraud detection and prevention in order to protect the integrity of the passport. The large investment in technology and structures since the establishment of the Integrity Section has helped to improve the recording and detection of fraud.

Due to lack of records it is not possible to provide the figures requested prior to 2016. Since 2016, our records show the number of passports revoked each year as follows:

For operational and security reasons, it is not possible to disclose information concerning specific cases.

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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201. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the steps he is taking ahead of the late spring, summer and autumn seasons in order to mitigate delays and backlogs in the processing of passport applications and issuing of passports. [13065/25]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Passport Service is successfully responding to the current level of demand for passports and has issued over 230,000 passports to date this year. Virtually all complete passport applications are being processed within or before advertised turnaround times and over half of adult renewal applications are processed within 2 working days.

My Department undertakes extensive advance workforce planning based on forecasted demand for passports on an annual basis. The staff requirement to meet forecasted demand for the coming year is signed off annually by the Department's Management Board. As a result of this planning the Passport Service is well-resourced to meet forecasted demand for 2025.

From 2020 to 2025, the number of staff in the Passport Service has increased from 615 to 862, a significant increase in staffing. Ensuring that we have enough staff to respond to demand is a key priority for my Department and is kept under constant review.

The first half of the year is busiest time for the Passport Service and to meet the demand of this busy season, 129 Temporary Clerical Officers (TCOs) have joined the Passport Service since 20 November 2024. These officers work on processing passports and assisting customers who contact the Customer Service Hub. 

I would ask the Deputy to encourage his constituents to apply for their passports through Passport Online, as the quickest, easiest and most cost effective way to apply for a passport. The Passport Online service allows citizens to apply online for their passport 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Passport Online is available to 99.9% of all applicants globally. As a matter of best practice, applicants should check the validity of their passport before booking travel.

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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202. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the number of passport cards issued on an annual basis since their introduction; and the amount in fees for same collected, broken down by category. [13066/25]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Passport cards were introduced in October 2015 and the following number of passport cards have been issued annually since then:

The fees charged for passports are dependent on the type of application made and are as follows:

From 2015-2021, the system did not record whether a passport card was issued as part of a bundle of passport book and passport card, with a fee of €25, or as an individual passport card with a fee of €35 and the Passport Service is therefore not in a position to provide an estimate of fees charged during this period.

From 2022 to 2024 the breakdown of whether passport cards were issued as part of a bundle (i.e. with a passport book) or individually is as follows:

On the basis that the cost of passport card as part of a bundle is €25 and the cost of a passport card applied for individually is €35, the Passport Service estimates fees for passport cards from 2022-2024 as follows: