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Photocall Ireland

Passport office getting average of 250 applications a day

Demand rules out any chance of an on-the-spot services for new passports, says Tánaiste.

THE IRISH PASSPORT service cannot facilitate on-the-spot demands for a passport, the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore has warned.

Speaking in the Dail, Gilmore also said that there may be some advantage in airlines seeking passport validity details at the time of booking flights.

He added that he has asked the Passport Service to keep the possibility of “an international approach to the capture of passenger information in advance of travel” under review.

The Tánaiste said that the passport office has received on average 218 applications per day for the ‘less than ten days’ service, and an average of 42 applications a day for the ‘less than five days’ service this year.

“Included in these numbers are a small group of individuals who arrive from the airport and expect that a passport can be turned around immediately,” he said. “Unfortunately, it is not possible to meet these demands or expectations. The fastest turnaround time for standard applications is three working days. ”

The continued international respect for the integrity of the Irish passport depends on the robust nature of the entitlement checking process and the production of a secure travel document with features which make forgery difficult. These requirements mean that it is not possible to provide an on-the-spot service for the numbers involved at the Passport Service public offices.

Responding to a question in the Dáil from Labour TD Tommy Broughan, Gilmore said that people need to check the validity of their passports “in sufficient time” for renewal ahead of travelling abroad, though he conceded that this did not necessarily mean people would renew or apply for a passport in time either.

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28 Comments
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    Mute Finnian Curran
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    May 13th 2012, 5:46 PM

    Maybe open more offices and employ more to deal with extra demand ?

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    Mute John Conniffe
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    May 13th 2012, 5:29 PM

    On the bright side, think of all those passport processing fees adding to state revenue… We’ll make a profit on emigration yet :-)

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    Mute El Cheebo
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    May 13th 2012, 5:51 PM

    Eh 250 a day, don’t they have an entire dept. Looking after the applications!

    Good that they’re busy

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    Mute Rod Lakes
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    May 13th 2012, 6:10 PM

    That’s 250 emergency passports a day on top of the regular applications

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    Mute james
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    May 13th 2012, 5:25 PM

    What do they be doing all day…I feel another strike cmg on.

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    Mute Steve Wright
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    May 13th 2012, 9:23 PM

    If you’re in a hurry, didn’t the Israeli embassy do a good job last year allegedly? You could always try there.

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    Mute Con Ó Domhnaill
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    May 13th 2012, 9:40 PM

    And that stunning blonde Russian spy in the US had no problem with her Irish passport application

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    Mute paul
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    May 13th 2012, 8:31 PM

    And the government will no doubt be delighted to announce that 0.02% less people are signing on the dole. mmmmmmm I wonder why that is

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    Mute Declan Mannix
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    May 13th 2012, 7:30 PM

    Rod, don’t think it is. 250 in total which includes people who arrive and demand on the spot. passport office offer 5 and 10 business day turnaround through passport express and an post.

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    Mute Rod Lakes
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    May 13th 2012, 8:10 PM

    I think my figures are right, 218 less than 10 days passports plus 42 less than three days passports plus the postal applications for non emergency passports, or am I reading the article wrong?

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    Mute Con Ó Domhnaill
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    May 13th 2012, 8:38 PM

    Expect the delays to be even longer if you belong to any marginalised group. I have Roma friends who originally came here from Poland and whose 3 children were born here and are Irish citizens. When they went to the passport office in Molesworth Street to get a passport for their youngest child they were faced with what I can only describe as outright racism. The information on the passport form was checked and double checked and queried, they were kept waiting for hours on end and then told to come back another day. (not easy when they had to walk from Dublin 7 with baby & buggy, etc., often in the rain). They were sent away to get letters from the Social Welfare Office and their family Doctor. When they presented those they were told the application form was not signed properly at the Garda Station – implying it was a fake. They had to go back to the Bridewell Station, it was a Friday and they were told the Garda who signed the form was off until Monday so that involved waiting over the weekend. When I went with them to try and help I was told if I persisted in querying their continuing refusals that they would walk away and not talk to me. The family had already booked a flight to visit family in London and the Passport Office made them wait until minutes before closing time the day before the flight before eventually issueing the passport. The “lady” who dealt with them was an absolutely horrible person and when we complained to her Supervisor he took her side and the delays and obstruction actually got worse.
    My only other dealings with the Passport Office was in trying to renew an out of date passport for a booked flight. I was told “no-can-do” of course, so missed the flight. There was lady there who was in the same situation, she was going to England, flights booked, but also had to cancel her trip. She told me that in England you can walk in and get a passport renewed on the same day!

    29
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    Mute Mìchèal de Staic
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    May 13th 2012, 10:25 PM

    the passport office it the best example of what is wrong in the irish public service

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    Mute sluazcanal
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    May 14th 2012, 12:28 AM

    Booked flights on an out of date passport? back of the line!

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    Mute _doesnotcompute
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    May 14th 2012, 11:04 AM

    Proper bloody order, you shouldn’t have booked flights on an out-of-date passport and wasted public service time and money dealing with your incompetence.

    Also in England you wouldn’t have a hope in Hell of getting a passport on the spot, that’s pure lies.

    People have gotten awful spoiled during the Celtic Tiger, demanding public services on the spot when it is now just not possible due to cutbacks, early retirements, and less money to spend on services. Wake up and smell the Recession!

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    Mute Con Ó Domhnaill
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    May 14th 2012, 1:19 PM

    When you see cheap flights on Ryanair and it’s the weekend, you do not wait around – you book straight away because they can only go up (no pun intended). And of course you presume that the Passport Office can come up with a passport within a WEEK. It’s not rocket science producing a passport? And after all they do charge a premium for an “emergency” passport.
    The lady I met in the Passport Office assured me that her Dad had indeed got an emergency passport in London in one day, and I would be inclined to believe her!

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    Mute Cliff Grebouwski
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    May 14th 2012, 5:24 PM

    Con, any memories of people queuing around the block for a passport a couple of years back?

    Great story though- i like they way the blame lies with everyone but yourself!

    I;m stealing this from Barney Frank, but on which planet do you spend most of your time?

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    Mute Con Ó Domhnaill
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    May 14th 2012, 9:10 PM

    @ Cliff. Yes, I do remember people queueing around the block, I remember one man having to chain himself to railings to help secure his passport. Basically, the staff working in the Passport Office held the people of Ireland to ransom and hundreds of people missed flights at a cost of thousands. I live on a planet where selfish people held others to ransom over whatever grievances they had, unfortunately.
    Work for the Passport Office Cliff?

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    Mute Cliff Grebouwski
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    May 14th 2012, 9:32 PM

    Ah Con, you came so close to grasping the point I was making but your self-righteous outrage seems to have let you down.

    I’ll be clearer- our public service is pretty awful at the best of times, it’s your fault for booking flights before renewing your passport, this is especially the case when you simply take a guess as to how long you think tithe process should take.

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    Mute Con Ó Domhnaill
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    May 14th 2012, 11:31 PM

    I was not being self-righteous at all, in fact I made it clear that I was taking a gamble on buying a Ryanair ticket. My point was that it was cheap, so I took a gamble and if I can’t make it to Bratislava this time so what! But OMG Cliff – mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
    Still doesn’t excuse a sloppy service from the Passport Office though.

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    Mute Cliff Grebouwski
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    May 15th 2012, 8:14 AM

    Why must we fight? The passport office is turning all of us against each other!!

    It’s what they want!!!!

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    Mute Derek Mclaughlin
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    May 13th 2012, 9:44 PM

    what do they work at con o’dom?

    20
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    Mute Con Ó Domhnaill
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    May 13th 2012, 10:15 PM

    Fan of TV3′s Paul Connolly, are we Derek?

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    Mute John Byrne
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    May 14th 2012, 4:48 AM

    Yeah they should get Israel to throw a few together for them

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    Mute Gerarda Berger
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    Jun 11th 2012, 6:32 PM

    If you try to renew your Irish passport in to renew from England is even worse! You send all info and money to embassy in London where they then send it on to Dublin It takes ages my last one took 3 months and many phone calls. I’m due to renew in 2014 maybe I should start now. English passports take 2 weeks. Where are we going wrong?

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    Mute Johnson Kirsten
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    Nov 5th 2014, 2:34 PM

    The best way to make a good impression is to send in a typed form instead of a handwritten one. Try this site PDFFIller, Inc which I use to type on PDFs, because it has the most options. I was able to get a blank fillable passport application through, http://goo.gl/qga7bK

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    Mute Lisa Barry
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    Jun 11th 2013, 6:40 PM

    posted and received application in Lisbon embassy 15.04.
    still waiting and no sign of any updates.
    Absolutely ridiculous and certainly much worse than the service provided in Ireland 10 years ago.

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    Mute Lisa Barry
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    Jun 11th 2013, 6:39 PM

    My Irish passport renewal has taken from 15.06 so far and still no sign of being processed. Absolutely ridiculous. I would love to have been able to avail of the 10 day service, but they don’t extend that to passports being renewed through embassies. I received far better service 10 years ago, without a doubt.

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