Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 30 April 2014
36. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will reduce the price of the passport express service when delivery is not made within the specified timeframe; and if his attention has been drawn to the fact that passport express applicants are not being guaranteed delivery within the advertised timeframe. [19042/14]
View answerI can confirm that applications for passport renewal are currently taking on average 8 working days from receipt in the Passport Service. Applications from first time applicants are currently take 10/11 working days. The attraction and popularity of the Passport Express service is reflected on the fact that to date 141,000 Irish citizens have applied through Passport Express representing an 11% increase in demand over 2013 and 15% over 2012. This increase in demand can be partly explained by two sharp peaks so far in 2014 as a result of naturalisation ceremonies in January and March, when approximately 8,000 new Irish citizens largely applied for their passports within a relatively short period of time. This has adversely impacted on the finite resources available to the Passport Service over a number of weeks in terms of the processing time for passport applications. There is no doubt that this stretch on resources served to delay the delivery of passport services for a number customers. This delay in the delivery of services is regretted.
However, the delivery of all passport services is conditional on the available resources at the time of application and must be cognisant of the legal requirements of the Passports Act 2008 and related regulations. In this regard, it is not possible to provide an absolute guarantee in terms of the delivery of any passport service. Nonetheless, the ten working day turnaround period for Passport Express applications is a daily business goal by which the Passport Services vigorously works to and is the standard of performance by which it reports to the general public each week on the Department’s website www.passport.ie.
I should also explain that the charge for adults submitting applications through Passport Express can be broken down into two components: €80 paid to the State, which is the standard cost for a passport application and €9 to An Post to cover the cost of the receiving applications, the traceability systems and guaranteed postal delivery element.
There has been no increase in the cost of the standard fee for a passport since 2009. The An Post element increased from €8.50 to €9 in 2012, after a long period unchanged, to reflect more general increases in the cost of postal delivery.
I believe that the Passport Express service continues to represent excellent value for money and do not see any scope for price reductions at this time.
