Sir, – The Passport Office has come under great criticism in recent times and it is absolutely justified. The basic issue boils down to one factor – its complete refusal to take phone calls. It is impossible to communicate with them or check on what is causing a delay. This is completely unacceptable from a critical Government service.
My grandson’s passport took 10 weeks to issue recently and only became available because our very helpful local TD’s office discovered that there was a failure in communications between the Passport Office and the relevant Garda station in Dublin. No one in the passport office bothered to inform us of the administrative glitch and we couldn’t get through to them by phone.
Once we were aware of the issue, it was immediately solved, but without the political intervention we’d be waiting forever.
From what I understand, this is a common problem. – Yours, etc,
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RORY O’MAHONY,
Kilkenny.
