First, of course, I recognise there has been a lot of disruption in the context of people trying to access passports. I have spent a great deal of my summer dealing with many of the Deputies in this House, trying to get passports resolved for many of their offices and for their constituents. I have specifically put a team in place around me in the office to try to ensure that happens as efficiently as possible. It is not always possible to solve that. If somebody comes to me and they are looking for a child's passp…

If I could finish the point because I had a lot of questions and I am entitled to answer them, surely.

You cannot give me two minutes to answer a dozen Members.

I will try to come back with replies to the individual questions Members have.

That is not what I said.

Nobody is begging for anything. This is the provision of an essential service through a pandemic. I will be clear to Deputies. It is not about not being able to access extra office space. The way in which the Passport Office is set up is that it is a secure space to protect the integrity of the passport system. There was plenty of office space that we could take but you cannot simply extend into another office without extending the secure systems within the Passport Office, which is not straightforward. We are expa…

Deputy Aindrias Moynihan is correct. The time it takes to get to the starting line for the issuing of a passport is the big issue.

When there are-----

All right. When there is paperwork involved, there are complications in the middle of a pandemic. That has been the issue.

From passports in Mayo to Nicaragua, but I am happy to take that question. I am deeply concerned by the deteriorating democratic and human rights situation in Nicaragua, in particular, the ongoing repression of opposition politicians, members of the media, human rights defenders and civil society representatives. I am also very concerned by the arrest and detention earlier this year of a number of potential presidential candidates, many of whom are now being prosecuted under the foreign agents law, which contravene…

The EU is using its relatively new human rights laws to introduce targeted sanctions formally against individuals it believes are responsible for undermining democracy or compromising human rights in the context of international human rights law. The EU has already acted on that. It will remain under consideration as to whether we will extend those targeted sanctions to more individuals. These are real sanctions involving asset freezes and travel bans. Some in Nicaragua have assets in the EU. The sanctions are targ…

This is something that the EU has been following and continues to follow. It is not something that has got much media coverage in Ireland. Unfortunately, it is a part of the world that does not get the spotlight often enough. However, the EU will closely monitor how these elections are run and maintain a focus on its restrictive measures or targeted sanctions to try to be as persuasive as possible. There will be a request from the international community for full access for election observers. Whether that access i…

I know that people are frustrated because, in the absence of international travel for nearly 18 months, many are now checking and realising that their passports are out of date, but they want to plan their holidays. We understand what is contributing to the dramatic increase in demand, which will continue right the way through next year. We are taking on more people, but access to more people has not been the primary problem. The challenge has been in being able to get people into the office safely and expanding th…

An awful lot of people were accommodated at the last minute as well. I know, because we have been working night and day trying to deal with emergency passports for people throughout the summer. For some of the summer months, we issued up to 100,000 passports per month. The people who do not get resolved through the system go to Deputies' offices and, therefore, many Deputies hear about lots of problems and do not see the benefits of a system that is getting back up on its feet with extra resources and new systems i…

For the people who have them in on time, we need to have a system that delivers on time and is predictable, and that people can track. We are working on the delivery of that system.

As the Deputy will be aware, the Defence Forces are currently excluded from the provisions of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 which transposed the EU working time directive into Irish law. The Government is committed to amending this Act and to bringing the Defence Forces and An Garda Síochána within the scope of its provisions, where appropriate. Responsibility for preparing an appropriate legislative framework lies with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. My Department is working closely…

As I have already indicated, significant work has been undertaken to examine the nature of the duties of the Defence Forces and how provisions of the working time directive can be applied to its members. This review determined that a high percentage of activities are already compliant with the directive. It is important to recognise that. On foot of engagement with the representative associations through the subcommittee as part of the conciliation and arbitration scheme, compensatory rest is already provided for c…

It is a safety issue and a workplace relations issue. That is why we will be implementing the working time directive. We will provide in Irish law that the exclusion from the legislation of the Defence Forces and An Garda Síochána is addressed. We are committed to doing that. I am happy to speak to RACO and-or PDFORRA in regard to that issue. I am meeting them in a few weeks' time and we will be discussing a whole range of issues. I am happy to update them on progress in this space as well. It is important to recog…

Military life places unique demands on individuals and it is necessary that Defence Forces personnel are prepared to meet the challenges of all military operations. To this end, it is vital that the age and health profile of personnel be such to ensure operational capability and effectiveness are not compromised in any way. For this reason, compulsory retirement ages for ranks in the Permanent Defence Force are considerably lower than in other employments. The age and fitness profile of the Permanent Defence Force …

I will give the Deputy the information I have, according to my notes on the actual numbers. I have heard the figure of 700 as well but I am advised by military management that as of 1 May 2021 the number of personnel enlisted post 1994, in terms of privates and corporals, in receipt of tech pay group 2 or less and who will have served 21 years or more by the end of 2022 is 195. There may be others in that category from other ranks and so on. I have said to PDFORRA and also said in the Seanad that I would like to pr…