Mattie McGrath raised concerns about lengthy passport service delays and called for reform, citing minimum eight-week waits for post-passport items and problems with Garda checks. He said families and travellers are being put under enormous pressure despite the efforts of passport staff.
Main concerns
He detailed multiple problems in the passport system, including delays, slow opening of returned passport items (a minimum of eight weeks) and growing angst for people planning travel, weddings, funerals or work trips.
Garda checks and accessibility
He described practical hurdles with Garda verification, saying Garda stations are sometimes not available and officers often ring only three times to check passports, leaving applications stalled and applicants unable to travel.
Demand and official response
He acknowledged that passport staff are cooperative and working hard, and noted that officials — including the Tánaiste — were aware of the problem and attempting to speed up processing. In the debate another speaker said passport issuance is breaking records and that demand and travel are both high.
Impact on travellers
He highlighted knock-on effects: paid holidays missed, relatives or party members left behind, and business trips disrupted. He warned the situation was getting worse and creating significant distress for families.
Call for reform
He urged systemic changes to how passports are processed, stressing that the current delays cannot continue and that "something has to be done in this day and age to reform how we do the passports."
We publish thousands of recordings to make Irish politics transparent and resistant to manipulation. Spotted an error? Report it — together we are building a reliable archive of Irish politics.
This time of year, many, many people are travelling abroad for holidays, for weddings, indeed funerals, many for work. The issue with the passport service, and I'm not knocking the staff in the passport office, they're very, very cooperative, but there are many different problems, but on post-passport, which we should be supporting, it's eight weeks before they're even opened, minimum of eight weeks, and the huge issues that are there, delays, and the angst, families going away and maybe one doesn't have a passport, and holidays paid for, something has to be done in this day and age to reform how we do the passports, there's issues with a 24-hour Garda station, or Garda station, not being available, they only ring three times to check out a passport, to get an answer to the Garda, she kind of present, and they're stretched too, so everybody's doing their best, but people are under enormous pressure, and there's huge knock-on effects of people being unable to do their business, go on their holiday, or whatever, and maybe leave one child behind them, or an adult, or whatever, best men in some place, groomsmen, it just needs to be sorted out, it's worse it's getting, in spite of the efforts of the passport staff. Thanks, Deputy. We're seeing a level of enormous and unprecedented demand for new passports and passport renewals in Ireland at the moment, and you'll know the problems that have arisen around car parking at Dublin airport, there is a lot of financial distress in the country, there's also a lot of money in the country as well, and huge numbers of people are travelling, and it's important that we provide good turnaround times for passports, they are among the best in the world, believe it or not, and the number of passports being issued is breaking all records, but that's not to dismiss the fact that very often people will realise late in the day that their passport is out of date, and that there are delays in getting first passports in particular, and I know the Thangsta is very much aware of this, I'm very much aware of it, because Deputy Ring reminds me of it on an almost weekly basis, and we're doing everything we can to speed things up. Deputy on Speaker, President. It's a affiliation periodic of the passport�� weather. The rest of our public says there's a lot of things that I do, maybe I don't know it. I mean, that's not what is pandemic that I've condemned as r Respott team as well as a move. And that's where I live when I'm and that I'm having an impression on an initial figure. It works every phone with constant safety, and I take numbers every day and I work on as a public administration, but I just want to make things clear. And I Native Americans live now and that is related to a flight, and I find a lot of the�ascal, but I love to treat everything that I'm not sharing ground Nigel and I substitute this applications as well as the first pool, and I pay off to start teaching everything with the people of Nelson and I+. How old I think brilliant.
Thank you for downloading 🙏
If you publish this material on social media, we would be very grateful if you tagged VideoParliament. It helps us reach more people and keep building a transparent archive of Irish politics.
