A woman who is waiting weeks for her passport and fears she could miss her holiday due to processing delays has vowed to "camp out overnight if necessary" in the Dublin office to get it.
Suzanne Devitt, 54, is from Lurgan, Co Armagh, in Northern Ireland. She submitted an application for her first ever passport in June to the Irish Passport Office, and due to delays in getting her passport she had to make the long journey to the passport office in Dublin.
She told Dublin Live that she has a holiday booked for Tenerife on October 10, and that since she submitted the application she has been told three different dates for when to expect her passport. The most recent date is October 24 which could see her miss her holiday.
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Suzanne said: "I'm visually impaired and limited with my mobility, I don't drive. The telecommunications office said send in a photocopied version of your electoral ID card, so we did.
"Then we got issued another date for my passport, but then they said no that's good enough and to send in the electoral ID card. I had to come down to Dublin to get them to scan the card today.
"Now my third date is the 24 October to receive the passport and we're actually leaving on 10 October for Tenerife. We have given them every piece of paperwork they have asked for."
Suzanne claims that she was told "wrong information" by the telecommunications team, and that there was a lot of miscommunication between the passport offices. She also said that for those from Northern Ireland wishing to get a passport in Ireland, that there is currently no service available.
She said: "Sinn Fein have asked for an Irish passport office to be set up in Belfast or Lurgan. If I had put in for a passport in London I would have gotten it quicker, to go from Lurgan to London all I would have needed was the electoral ID card. I am determined if they can't get it sorted today I will camp outside the office tonight.
"Three times I have ended up in my Sinn Fein office over the passport issues, but this crowd at the passport office has made it a nightmare. There are other people like me who have disabilities and people with kids, they should have an office in Belfast where you can be able to come into the office and get it sorted."
In an update, Suzanne has now been told that she will hopefully receive her passport later this evening. In a statement to Dublin Live, a spokesman from the Department of Foreign Affairs said: "The Passport Service cannot comment on individual applications. The Passport Service is producing record numbers of passports, beating the previous busiest year (2019) by almost 20%.The Passport Service has issued over 940,000 passports to date this year.
"Passport Online is the quickest and most efficient way to apply for a passport and is consistently up to 4 times faster than the Post Passport service for renewal applications. Turnaround time for online adult renewals is 10 working days. Turnaround time for child online renewals is 15 working days. Turnaround time for first time online applications is 20 working days."
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