Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 November 2021
286. Deputy Denise Mitchell asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the reason a child (details supplied) of an Irish citizen had their passport application cancelled after 11 months of supplying documents to the passport office [59070/21]
View answerOperations of the Passport Office were severely disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, as were many other government services. Due to Level 5 restrictions, between January and May of this year, the Passport Service offered emergency passport services only.
First time passport applications are necessarily complex to process, since they are essentially applications for Irish citizenship. The Passport Service must validate the true identity of the applicant and take measures to confirm the applicant’s entitlement to Irish citizenship. It is the statutory responsibility of the Passport Service to protect the integrity of the Irish passport. Accordingly, a rigorous analysis process is in place to verify the identity and citizenship status of applicants.
In the case of first time passport applications for children, the consent of all guardians must also be thoroughly validated. Verification of consent of all guardians is vital to protecting the integrity of the passport itself and the rights of the child and its guardians.
With regard to the specific application about which the Deputy is enquiring, this application was submitted shortly before Passport Service operations were disrupted by necessary public health restrictions. Once operations scaled up again in line with easing of public health restrictions, the Passport Service made multiple attempts to verify the consent of the applicant's parent who was resident overseas. Unfortunately, staff were unable to verify the consent of the overseas parent in this case and the passport application had come to the point where it had expired. I encourage the applicant's parent to apply for their child's passport again, once all supporting documents and consent forms are fully complete and verifiable.
