Noel McCarthy (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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165. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his plans to establish a passport printing service at the Cork Passport Office; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15395/25]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Passport Online service offers citizens the ability to apply online for their passport 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This award-winning service has allowed for the centralisation of passport processing and has resulted in greater efficiencies for our citizens and for the Passport Service. Passport Online is a user-friendly, efficient service that is currently issuing the vast majority of adult renewal passports within 2 to 4 days.

Over 93% of all passport applications are now made through Passport Online which is available to 99.9% of all applicants globally.

The Passport Service operates three passport book printing machines: two machines are located in the main production facility at the Balbriggan campus and the third machine is located in the Dublin 2 Passport Office. The printing and dispatch of passports is a highly automated process in what is, essentially, an industrial production system.

The Passport Service estimates the initial capital cost of purchasing and installing new printer and mailing machine to be approximately €5.3 million.

In addition to the capital investment, these highly sophisticated machines require expert engineers to be on-site while the machines are in operation to maintain and service the machines and repair them when necessary. The running and maintenance costs alone are is estimated to be €600,000 per year.

The public offices of the Passport Service in Cork, and Dublin 2, operate an Urgent Appointment service for renewal applications. Our records show that just 1-2% of all passport applicants avail of the Urgent Appointment service. During 2024, there were an average of 240 urgent appointments for a four-day turnaround service available in Cork each week. In 2024, 26% of appointments available in Cork were booked.

For these reasons, at the moment, a business case cannot be made to invest this level of funds to facilitate the very small proportion of applicants who wish to have their passport renewed within one day in Cork.

I am satisfied that the current Passport Online service and production capacity meets the needs of passport applicants. The Passport Service will continue to consider ways in which to enhance this essential citizen service.