Newton Emerson’s curt and dismissive response to our call for an Irish passport office in the north, to deal with huge demand, merits a challenge.
Firstly, Mr Emerson seems to not understand that online and postal passport applications still need to be physically processed. Additionally, urgent or emergency appointments for passport applications are held in person in one of three current sites in Dublin, Cork or London.
A passport office in the north would allow citizens to access a service provided elsewhere in Ireland, and would support the processing of a seemingly ever-increasing number of Irish passport applications in the north. A passport office in the north makes sense to help deal more efficiently with this demand.
Furthermore, the charge of ‘flag-planting’ is an insult. Irish citizens in the north are Irish citizens where they reside. It is a birthright guaranteed, to those who wish to avail of it, by the Good Friday Agreement, signed 27 years ago.
Finally, the delivery of efficient public services to citizens should not be subject to derision based on identity. I suspect Mr Emerson doesn’t believe the Irish passport office in London is an exercise in ‘flag-planting’, so why should a similar facility in the north be considered so?
Dáire Hughes MP, Sinn Féin, Newry/Armagh
