Vol. 433 No. 1
110 Mr. J. Mitchell asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs if, in view of the circumstances of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 8 and the hardship being caused due to the charge for a passport, he will issue a one year passport to this person for a nominal sum; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The passport fee regulations no longer provide for the issue of annual passports and that is therefore not an option open to me.
As I indicated in reply to a similar question from the Deputy (10 March 1993) I appreciate that the standard passport fee of £45, while not unreasonable, may cause hardship for certain categories of applicants. A number of special provisions are already in place to help reduce this hardship: a three year passport, which costs £10, is available for persons under 18 or over 65 years of age; a collective passport, which costs £45, is available for groups of young people of over five and under 50 persons, who are travelling on educational, cultural or pilgrimage purposes to certain countries; a collective passport is also available for groups of invalid pilgrims travelling to Lourdes; a low season fee of £35 was introduced on a trial basis last year for applicants who apply for their passports during October and November. The campaign proved very successful and will be continued this year.
