Passport Services Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-11 ============================================================ Ollie Crowe (FF), Industrial and Commercial Panel I thank the Minister of State for his excellent response. It shows he is on the ground because he knows exactly the issue that has been raised. The point I raise is that what is happening is the Passport Office is contacting the Garda station on three occasions but does not follow up with the superintendent's office and consequently there is an issue after the three calls are made. That is the feedback I am getting in Galway. I would like to send out the message that what the Minister of State has said here this morning is to go to your main Garda station with the full-time hours that a 24-hour Garda station, which we have throughout Galway city has, and which other leading localities, whether Ennis or Limerick as the case may be, have. I appreciate this is a very important role. Ensuring identity verification is a key point in the passport process, and naturally we all go along with that. I note the digitalisation of Garda records is a matter for An Garda Síochána, as we know, but having said that, there is a close relationship between the Department and the Garda, and it would be of considerable benefit if the Department could engage with An Garda Síochána on this to give it a suitable path forward. As I have noted, a proper system is implemented. This would seem to be a task that could be largely carried out by administrative staff, freeing up Garda resources, which would surely be a win-win situation. I fully take on board what the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley has said this morning on sending out the message to go to a main, 24-hour Garda station. That is the point that as public representatives we need to get across. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. 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