Coveney rules out passport printer for Cork office

Foreign affairs minister says demand for passports is decreasing and 'turnaround times are not being delayed predominantly because of printing'

Simon Coveney: 'There is a question concerning the financial cost of this, given the resourcing we must focus on other areas such as customer service, efficiency, call centres, etc.'

There is no need for a passport printer in Cork because peak demand is declining, but a new office is being sought, Simon Coveney, the foreign affairs minister, has said.

In response to a series of parliamentary questions about passports in Cork, Mr Coveney ruled out adding a printer to the Cork office on South Mall. At present all passports are printed in Dublin.

Fine Gael TD for Kerry Brendan Griffin asked Mr Coveney to consider the move but the minister replied: "This is not currently under consideration given that passport demand is now starting to decrease."

"There is a question concerning the financial cost of this, given the resourcing we must focus on other areas such as customer service, efficiency, call centres, etc. 

I am not going to rule this possibility out however, and if it makes sense to do it, then we will

My understanding though is that turnaround times are not being delayed predominantly because of printing times."

Sinn Féin TD for Cork North Central Thomas Gould asked whether there were thousands of Cork applications in the system. Mr Coveney said any delay was not caused by printing capacity. 

Relocation

"That is not to say we will never have a printer in Cork," he said. "We have given consideration to a move to a new passport office in Cork. The current office facilities are not big enough and are not at the standard they need to be in terms of the staff numbers. We are in the very early process of looking at a relocation and providing a bigger, and perhaps more modern, building for the Passport Service."