Passport Services: Statements
Dail Éireann — 2022-05-26
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Pat Buckley (SF), Cork East

Having listened to the debate, it is right to say that people are very frustrated. We are probably now known as lastchance.com . I have listened to the stories that have been shared in the course of the debate. I have a pain in my head because I have spent the past three quarters of an hour on the phone trying to sort out issues for one lady.
Another issue that has come up again and again is errors in applications not being identified in one fell swoop. Some errors are identified, the person fixes them and then other errors are identified, all of which adds to the whole time.
There was a suggestion today that the passport postal service may be abolished entirely. I agree that we should have a preference for the online process, and that we should make sure to encourage people to do it online where they can. Obviously it is a quicker and more efficient system. In my opinion it is very clear that we must have the service available for those who cannot go online such as some people with disabilities and some older people. They cannot and should not be discriminated against because they cannot go online. We cannot just get rid of that service. The answer here is not to improve the Oireachtas urgent query service, but to-----

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2022-05-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:50:30+00:00
Sitting date: 2022-05-26