State milking €29m from passport cash cow, say TDs

A CUT in the cost of passports was demanded by TDs last night as it emerged the Government was making €29 million a year from issuing them.

Labour finance spokeswoman Joan Burton accused the Foreign Affairs Department of “milking” people after the Dáil’s influential Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was told of the massive profits being sucked in.

“The department isn’t in business to make a profit, it’s in business to provide a service and what one would expect is that the department would seek to cover its costs in providing that service, but not milking people. This is just another form of stealth tax,” Ms Burton said.