92. Deputy Séamus McGrath asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if it can be ensured that a one-day urgent passport service is available at the Cork office. [50166/26]

The Passport Online service offers citizens the ability to apply online for their passport 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This award-winning service has allowed for the centralisation of passport processing and has resulted in greater efficiencies for our citizens and for the Passport Service. Passport Online is a user-friendly, efficient service that is currently issuing the vast majority of adult renewal passports within 2 working days.

Approximately 97% of all passport applications are now made through Passport Online which is available to 100% of all applicants globally.

The public offices of the Passport Service in Cork and Dublin 2 operate an Urgent Appointment service for renewal applications. Our records show that just 1.7% of all passport applicants avail of the Urgent Appointment service. During 2025, there were an average of 240 urgent appointments for a four-day turnaround service available in Cork each week. In 2025, just 15.6% of appointments available in Cork were booked.

The Passport Service operates three passport book printing machines: two machines are located in the main production facility at the Balbriggan campus and the third machine is located in the Dublin 2 Passport Office. The printing and dispatch of passports is a highly automated process in what is, essentially, an industrial production system.

To have a one-day turnaround in Cork Passport Office would involve purchasing another passport printer, which would be located in Cork.

The Passport Service estimates the initial capital cost of purchasing and installing new printer and mailing machine to be approximately €5.3 million. In addition to the capital investment, these highly sophisticated machines require expert engineers to be on-site while the machines are in operation to maintain and service the machines and repair them when necessary. The running and maintenance costs alone are is estimated to be €600,000 per year.

For these reasons, at the moment, a business case has not been made to invest this level of funds to facilitate the small proportion of applicants who may wish to have their passport renewed within one day in Cork.