Passport Services
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-11
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Timmy Dooley (FF), Clare

I thank the Senator. I know he is passionate about this area, because he and I have had numerous conversations. He is working extremely hard in his constituency to try to get people over the line.
I will raise the issue, as I have done previously, with the Minister for foreign affairs in relation to who can actually sign and do the verification. I am conscious that it can be done by peace commissioners, commissioners of oaths, schoolteachers and school principals, etc. I see no reason why somebody who is elected to the Oireachtas could not be in a position to sign. For whatever might be said about us as politicians, generally, those of us who are elected have the trust of our constituents. It would be an appropriate profession to be able to sign and verify because the Senators in the House know full well that unlike gardaí and school teachers, etc., our phones can never be off. We are always in a position to be available because that is our role. The Senators here today are hard-working, constituency people. That is something that should be looked at.
The Senator might bring forward a Private Member's Bill or perhaps another Commencement matter to broaden the kind of people who can be used because while a garda plays a very important role, the role generally is just to witness. Somebody presents him or herself with a photograph and that is the individual and the garda signs to that effect. There is no reason that could not be done by a Member of the Oireachtas. That would resolve a lot of the issues that we talk about, but that is a matter for the Department. It is something the Senator could raise here at a later stage.

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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