I would like to give some of my time to Deputy Cullimore.
Adjournment Debate. - Passport Office Difficulties.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
At the moment, queues form as early as 7.30 a.m. outside the Passport Office, so that people can be sure of getting their passports in time. I pay a warm tribute to the staff in the Passport Office who are currently dealing with the enormous flood of applications due to the postal strike. An additional 60 staff at least have been taken on to help the staff of the Passport Office and they are working long hours and are opening on Saturdays and bank holidays. This is not solving the problem. Will the Minister consider the possibility of separating the functions in the Passport Office? It should be possible to arrange for the collection of completed passports at a different location thereby relieving some of the congestion in the offices.
This afternoon some of the people at the top of the queue told me they had been there for two hours and had taken time off work to stand in the queue. Admittedly, some of the congestion is being caused by people panicking and thinking that if they need a passport within the next six to eight weeks they must queue to get it. I appeal to people, if they do not need their passports within the next four weeks, to drop their application into the box outside the Passport Office and call back to collect it within four weeks. I recognise the need for a good security system in the process of issuing passports but I suggest that another location could be found, perhaps with Garda protection. Possibly one of the city centre Garda stations could make a room available where people could collect passports on production of identification.
I am asking the Minister to consider in the longer term making more offices available for the issue of passports. There is an office in Cork where people can leave applications which are then sent to Dublin. The passports are subsequently sent to Cork for collection. It is important to consider opening up the Cork office for the issue of passports. Another location in the west could also be made available.
I commend the Department on making extra staff available. Perhaps with a little more effort the congestion could be relieved and passports could be issued a little faster.
I thank Deputy Owen for sharing her time. I compliment the staff who are working very hard to clear the backlog of passport applications. I would ask the Minister to consider reviewing the whole system of allocating passports. At present people have to travel long distances and then queue in appalling conditions. This morning over 300 people queued outside the passport office. Some of these had left their homes as early as 4 a.m. Constituents of mine had to leave at 5 a.m. to be outside the office by 7 a.m. I also spoke to a person from Belfast who had opted to take an Irish instead of a British passport and who had to queue for four hours.
The Minister should seriously consider the possibility that local authorities could deal with the processing and issuing of passports. I appreciate that a passport is a very important document, but the local authorities do a very good job in handling such documents as driving licences and motor taxation discs. I am sure they could also do a good job in relation to passports.
I thank Deputy Owen and Deputy Cullimore for raising this issue in a positive vein and also for their praise of the staff who are dealing with the problem.
I would like to assure the Deputies that I personally sympathise with members of the public, many of whom, as a result of the current postal dispute, have travelled long distances and waited lengthy periods in order to obtain passports.
I would like to explain that the Passport Office processes approximately 180,000 passport applications each year. On average 30 per cent of these are issued during the months of May and June. Sixty per cent of all applications are normally submitted and delivered through the postal system. As a result of the postal dispute, however, the vast majority of these applications have to be submitted and collected in person.
The very large increase in the number of persons calling to the Passport Office is causing considerable difficulties both for members of the public and for the Passport Office. To date the following measures have been taken: over 100 extra members of staff have been recruited on a temporary basis, in addition to the normal staff complement of about 40. Extra overtime is being worked on a continual basis. The Passport Office is a being opened each Saturday to facilitate the collection of passports. It was also open on the Bank Holiday Monday this week. Priority is being given to those members of the public who are travelling in the immediate future. Arrangements are also in place so that members of the public may deliver their applications and/or collect their passports either in person, through a courier system such as the Sure Parcel Service or EMS operated by An Post or by an agreed third party.
The suggestion has been made that a solution to the problem would be to open an additional centre for distributing passports. As Deputies are aware, we have a Passport Office at Cork which currently handles over 10 per cent of all applications. There are a number of complex issues involved in opening further distribution centre, including costs, administrative arrangements and, above all, security. For these reasons, and particularly as the current dispute seems to be nearing an end, I would be reluctant to open an additonal distribution centre at this time. However, I would assure the House that the situation is being monitored on a daily basis and we will continue to review the possibility of additional measures which might help to alleviate the current problems.