Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 July 2024
87. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will consider putting a printing system in place in the Cork Passport Office; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29778/24]
View answerThe Passport Service has issued over 660,000 passports to date this year. Virtually all complete passport applications are being processed within or before advertised turnaround times with the majority of adult online renewal applications issuing within two working days. There are currently no backlogs and 95% of applicants apply through Passport Online which is now available to 99.9% of all applicants globally.
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.
The Passport Offices in Dublin 2 and in Cork operate a four day Urgent Appointment service for renewal applications. The Cork office offers over 1,000 four day appointments per month. Throughout this year, an average of only 29% of appointments available in Cork were booked.
The Dublin office also offers a one-day Urgent Appointment service. However, this year only 0.7% of all passport applicants availed of this one-day service.
The Passport Service estimates the initial capital cost of purchasing and installing a new printer and mailing machine in Cork to be approximately €6 million. In addition to the capital investment, the annual cost of running and maintaining these machines in Cork is estimated to be €600,000 per year.
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.
