At this time of year, many people are travelling abroad for holidays, weddings, funerals and, in many cases, work. There is an issue with the passport service. I am not knocking the staff in the Passport Office, who are very co-operative, but there are many different problems. In the post passport system, which we should support, it takes a minimum of eight weeks before applications are even opened. There are very significant issues and delays which are causing angst. When families are going away, one member may not have a passport despite the holiday being paid for. Something has to be done to reform how we issue passports. There are issues with 24-hour Garda stations and with gardaí not being available. The Passport Office only rings three times to check out a passport application and may not be able to get an answer from the gardaí who are present, who are also stretched. Everybody is doing their best but people are under great pressure and there are knock-on effects with people being unable to do their business, go on their holiday or whatever. Perhaps they have to leave one child or adult behind. In some cases, they have to leave the best man or a groomsman behind. It needs to be sorted out. It is getting worse despite the efforts of Passport Office staff.

I thank the Deputy. We are seeing an enormous and unprecedented level of demand for new passports and passport renewals at the moment. The Deputy will know of the problems that have arisen with regard to car parking at Dublin Airport. There is a lot of financial distress in the country but there is also a lot of money in the country and large numbers of people are travelling. It is important that we provide good turnaround times for passports. Believe it or not, our turnaround times are among the best in the world and the number of passports being issued is breaking all records. However, that is not to dismiss the fact that, very often, people will only realise late in the day that their passport is out of date and that there are delays in getting first passports in particular. The Tánaiste is very much aware of this, as am I because Deputy Ring reminds me on an almost weekly basis. We are doing everything we can to speed things up.