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.

TDs heard that 670,000 passports were issued last year, bringing in €39m.

The passports cost €10m to produce, with a 10-year adult version costing €75.

The row erupted as the PAC was told the new hi-tech passport system cost twice as much to set up as its original price tag.

The automated facility in Balbriggan was estimated to cost €13.5m but ended up costing €27m before it was completed in 2004.

The spiralling costs were blamed on technology advances and additional security features post 9/11, according to the Foreign Affairs Department secretary general Dermot Gallagher.

New passports with biometric data on them will be issued from October, but there will be no price increase, he said.