asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if there has been an increase in the cost of passports; when this increase was introduced; and the reason neither he nor the Minister for Finance made an announcement on the matter.

7.

asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the cost of obtaining a ten year passport; and the additional annual income which will be obtained by the recent increase.

8.

asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will account for the present increase from £30 to £35 in the price of an Irish passport.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 2, 7 and 8 together.

The fee for the ten year passport was increased from £30 to £35 with effect from 1 January 1989. The increase in the fee was given effect by an amendment to the diplomatic and consular fees orders. A copy of the amended order was presented to the Houses of the Oireachtas on 20 December and press announcements relating to the order appeared in the national press on 23 December.

This is the first increase in passport fees for six years. It represents an increase of 16 per cent and is considerably less than the increase in the consumer price index and in public service costs for the same period.

It is expected that the increases will give rise to additional income of £850,000 this year.

That is almost £1 million. Would you agree, a Cheann Comhairle, that a better way to put it would be to say that that is three times the amount the Government are giving as an increase to the emigrants in the UK? They have given an extra £250,000 for 1988-89 and they are taking it back before the emigrants go at all in the price of passports by collecting three times the amount on the cost of passports.

The Deputy is imparting information rather than seeking it.

The Minister ought to be ashamed of those two figures.

First, there are no passports as far as the UK is concerned. Second, the last increase in passport fees was an increase of 100 per cent introduced by the Deputy's Government in 1983. This increase amounts to 16 per cent.

Would the Minister not agree that the increase given to the emigrants movement in the UK is being got back by an increase in the cost of passports?

No.

Yes. It is three times the amount.

I am surprised at the Deputy. I had come to expect better from him.