Passport Services
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-11
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Ollie Crowe (FF), Industrial and Commercial Panel

I thank the Minister of State for being here. I wish to raise the need for the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to make a statement on the modernising of the Garda verification system for first-time passport applicants or applications being treated as first-time applications, specifically to introduce an IT-based system or element so the process is not solely reliant on phones being answered, which is not always possible in busy Garda stations.
I, like all Members of the Oireachtas, receive representations on passports quite a lot and especially at this time of year as people are heading away on their holidays. Part of the security arrangement for first-time passports, whether for a child or adult, or an application being treated as a first-time application, which happens when the last passport issued to someone was in excess of 15 years previously, is verification by a garda of the identity of the applicant. When processing the application, the passport service will ring the Garda station up to three times to confirm the details of the application. I have read that where the passport service cannot reach the Garda station after three attempts, the relevant superintendent’s office can be contacted to verify the details, although in a lot of recent cases when I contacted the Passport Office’s Oireachtas service on applications this option has not been mentioned. Rather, I was informed a new form would be requested from the applicant. It is not clear to me how often the option to phone the relevant superintendent is used.
Regardless, this procedure seems incredibly unfair, given that a family may miss their holiday because there is no one available to answer a call in a Garda station. I was made aware of one recent case of a man in his 80s having to be driven to Dublin to secure his passport for a family trip. It is not acceptable that in 2026 we do not have a digital system in place to ensure the timely verification of the details by gardaí. Remedying this should be a priority. It is an issue which can and should be solved in a relatively straightforward manner. If a digital system were to be implemented, it could be completed by qualified administrative staff. That would have the bonus of freeing up extra Garda resources to focus their attention on crimes.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-11/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:03+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-11