Appeal to reopen offices as 80,000 wait for passports

'We can’t understand why the passport offices in Cork and Dublin are closed to the public. It is an essential service,' says the ITAA. Picture: Collins

An appeal to open passport offices in Cork and Dublin to tackle a backlog of applications has been made by the Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA).

Pat Dawson, chief executive of the ITAA, said that people have had to miss family funerals because of delays to passport processing, and families have left children at home as they belatedly found that their passports had expired before a trip.