Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 November 2004
216 Ms Cooper-Flynn asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if a person travelling to the USA and currently holding a hand-written passport can have a replacement machine-readable passport issued free of charge; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27868/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe appropriate statutory fee has to be paid on each occasion when a passport is sought. The relevant fees are set out in S.I. 82 Diplomatic and Consular Fees [Amendment] Regulations 2004. There is no provision in these regulations for the issue of replacement passports free of charge.
From 26 October 2004, all Irish passport holders visiting the United States require an individual machine-readable passport to avail of the US visa waiver programme. Holders of hand-written passports have the option of either replacing their existing passport with a machine-readable one (including, as indicated above, paying the appropriate fee) or obtaining a visa, in advance, from their nearest US diplomatic or consular mission. These new requirements apply to all visa waiver countries, including Ireland.
My Department has gone to considerable lengths to publicise these new requirements so that holders of Irish passports that are not machine-written would be able to obtain new, machine-readable passports in good time if they envisaged travelling to the US. The Passport Office advertised these new requirements in the national press of the 12 and 13 September and they have been publicised on the Department's website and on passport application forms for the past year. An arrangement was also put in place last year to produce machine-readable passports in Dublin for applicants abroad who requested such a passport.
All Irish passports produced in Ireland and in the Irish Embassy in London are machine-readable and meet the new US requirements. Only passports issued at other missions abroad, or by the Duty Officer Service in Dublin and Cork, are hand-written. These comprise approximately 5% of all Irish passports issued world-wide each year. My Department is currently developing a new passport issuing system, which is due to commence production before the end of this year. When that system is fully implemented, Irish passports, whether issued at home or abroad, will be machine-written.
