Locals urged to avoid common passport mistakes

People in Cavan are being urged to take care and avoid mistakes when making passport applications, especially first time applications for children.

Fianna Fáil TD for Cavan-Monaghan Niamh Smyth says she has received confirmation from the Passport Office of errors being commonly made with first time children’s passport applications.

TDs, Senators and other public representatives are innundated every year with complaints and requests for help with applications and Deputy Smyth says she has had "hundreds of queries".

“The backlogs in the Passport Office have been well publicised in recent months with many people losing out on thousands of euro on family holidays as passports fail to arrive on time. Many families have contacted my office about various issues pertaining to their passport applications. In many instances when we have raised the cases, they were escalated. This was because many were past their issue date and due to travel imminently when the family reached out to us", she said.

However, she says "in some of the cases", families were told that certain documents weren’t adequate.

Deputy Smyth continued, “The common issue I am seeing is on the consent form for a child’s first time passport. The main issue here is that the parents are signing it on one date and the Garda or relevant witness of choice is signing it on a different date. This will not be accepted by the passport office and will be returned to you. This can delay your application substantially as you need to complete a second consent form and get it witnessed again and submitted to passport office.”

“The second issue is that your chosen witness needs to be accessible on the phone to verify the consent form when your application is being checked. Unfortunately during the summer months I saw Principals of schools who witnessed forms being uncontactable as they are not in the school when the passport office ring. These are issues that need highlighting.”

She's urged people to lodge applications online as it's quicker but be prepared to contact a local representative if there are issued with an application.