Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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69. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade whether a passport printer will be installed in Cork. [65565/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, 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

Over 93% of all passport applications are now made through Passport Online which is available to 100% of all applicants globally.

The public passport offices in Cork and Dublin 2 operate an Urgent Appointment service for renewal applications. Passport Service records show that 0.84% of passports issued this year were issued through the one-day Urgent Appointment service in Dublin.

During 2025, there were an average of 240 urgent appointments for a four-day turnaround service available in Cork each week. In 2025 to date, just 16% of these appointments available in Cork were booked.

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

To have a one-day turnaround in Cork Passport Office would involve purchasing another passport printer, which would be located in Cork.

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 estimated to be €600,000 per year.

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