Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 19 May 2004
73 Mr. O’Shea asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the reason his Department is unable to supply details of the numbers of Irish passports issued by Irish embassies abroad to those qualifying for Irish citizenship through the descent rule; if records of such numbers are kept; if he will arrange to publish details of the numbers of passports so issued; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14562/04]
View answerI refer the Deputy to my reply to a similar question to the above raised by Deputy Burton which I answered on 29 April last. The information sought cannot be produced from the existing passport issuing system. This system was developed 12 years ago and does not have the capacity to produce reports of the detail requested by the Deputy. The new automated passport issuing system, which is being developed at present and will be operational in the autumn of this year, will have a much greater capacity to produce management information reports.
Over 3.1 million passports have been issued worldwide since 1997, almost 500,000 of these by overseas missions. Compiling a breakdown by descent from these application files could not be done manually except with the expenditure of a disproportionate amount of time and resources. I am however happy to provide details of the numbers of passports issued on an annual basis since 1997 for the information of the Deputy and this is as follows:
|
Year |
1997 |
1998 |
1999 |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
|
Dublin & Cork |
264,267 |
305,594 |
358,429 |
388,276 |
394,637 |
449,043 |
467,653 |
|
London |
36,000 |
38,000 |
40,379 |
41,562 |
41,769 |
53,491 |
47,581 |
|
Other Missions |
12,000 |
13,000 |
31,854 |
33,217 |
32,219 |
34,289 |
36,813 |
|
Total |
312,267 |
356,594 |
430,662 |
463,055 |
468,625 |
536,823 |
552,047 |
