Vol. 504 No. 7
134 Mr. Dennehy asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the plans, if any, he has to simplify the rules regarding confirmation of identity of applicants for passports, including providing an alternative to requiring applicants to present themselves at their local Garda station. [12768/99]
Passports are valuable documents and it is in the interests of the State and of all Irish citizens that they have a good international reputation and be readily accepted by the authorities of other states. The passport office makes every effort to ensure that appropriate security features are incorporated into the passport booklets and these standards must be matched by adequate care in checking the identities of applicants for passports.
Certification of applicants identities was in the past done by people of some standing in the community as well as by gardaí. Unfortunately this system was shown to be inadequate when a number of applicants whose identities were certified by people other than gardaí were found not to be genuine. In order to limit the possibility of a recurrence of such fraud it was decided in 1984 to confine certification to members of the Garda Síochána.
I believe that the gardaí are best placed to scrutinise passport applications from persons residing in the State so as to ensure that only those entitled to hold Irish passports receive them. The procedure, which is relatively straight-forward, is working well and therefore I have no plans to change it.
