Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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135. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will expedite a passport application (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24426/24]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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With regard to the specific application about which the Deputy has enquired, the Passport Service has reviewed the application, taken action as appropriate and contacted the applicant directly in relation to the application.

In the event of sudden bereavement or serious illness of a family member abroad, the applicant should contact the Passport Office and advise them of the issue. Priority is given to these applications by the Passport Service.

Our Customer Service Hub agents are available through phone and webchat services from Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. They can be contacted at +353 1 671 1633, or via the WebChat service: www.ireland.ie/contactpassportservice/.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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136. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will review the system for applying for a passport (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24456/24]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Passport Service remains committed to offering a range of application channels, including a paper-based service for citizens who are not eligible or do not wish to use the Passport Online service. Paper applications, by their nature, will always be a slower process. Therefore, the turnaround time for all paper applications is 8 weeks. Passport Service figures show that only 5% of applicants now use the Post Passport channel.

The Passport Service has a system whereby applications do not go to the back of the queue following a request for further documents. When the Passport Service receives the required additional documentation from the applicant, the application is prioritised for checking.

Online applications for which additional photos are requested are processed within a maximum of 10 working days of the receipt of the new photo. All other requests for further documents are processed within 15 working days of receipt of the additional documents, for both paper and online application types.

With regard to the specific application about which the Deputy has enquired, the Passport Service has issued a passport to the applicant.

The Passport Online service offers Irish citizens the ability to apply online for their passport 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is a user-friendly, efficient service that consistently offers processing times up to 4 times faster than paper-based passport renewal applications. Passport Online is now available to 99.9% of all applicants across the world.

I would ask the Deputy to encourage his constituents to apply online well in advance of their travel date for the quickest, cheapest and most efficient service.

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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137. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade when a passport application will issue (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24483/24]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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With regard to the specific application about which the Deputy has enquired, the Passport Service has issued the passport to the applicant.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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138. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade when a passport will issue in the case of the daughter of a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24533/24]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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With regard to the specific application about which the Deputy has enquired, further supporting documents for this application were received on 22^nd May 2024. Turnaround time from the receipt of further supporting documents is 15 working days.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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With regard to the specific application about which the Deputy has enquired, supporting documents for this application were received on 15th May 2024. This application is within the standard turnaround time and has not yet reached its issue by date.