Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 December 2004
115 Mr. Cuffe asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the number of passports for Irish children under the age of 18 which have been issued by his officials to the parents of Irish children; the number of Irish children recorded on the passports of their parents in the knowledge that a parent or parents were to be deported imminently in the past three years. [32576/04]
View answerThe existing database in the Passport Office does not classify passport holders by age and it is not possible, therefore, to give a precise figure for the number of passports issued to children under 18 years of age. However, the Passport Office estimates that approximately 4 million passports have been issued in the past ten years and that, of these, about 20% or 800,000 were issued to minors.
The new automated passport issuing system being introduced has a much greater capacity to produce management information reports and, when fully implemented, will be able to give a breakdown of passports issued by age as well as other criteria.
The Passport Office does not record the immigration status of foreign nationals who apply for passports on behalf of their Irish born children. It is not possible, therefore, to indicate how many passports have been issued in the past three years to children whose parents were about to be deported.
