No one-day urgent service planned for new Cork passport office

Cork’s new passport office will not offer a one-day urgent passport service when it opens, the Department of Foreign Affairs has said.

Asked by Séamus McGrath, Fianna Fáil TD for Cork South Central, about the possibility of a one-day service in the Cork city office, the Department of Foreign Affairs said that such a facility would necessitate the purchase and installation of a new printer and mailing machine.

This would have an initial capital cost of approximately €5.3m, the department said, and the machine would require expert engineers to be on-site while it was in operation, with estimated annual costs of €600,000.

The department added that approximately 97% of all applications are made through Passport Online, which issues “the vast majority of adult renewal passports within two working days”.

Passport applicants

It said: “Our records show that just 1.7% of all passport applicants avail of the urgent appointment service.

“During 2025, there were an average of 240 urgent appointments for a four-day turnaround service available in Cork each week.”

Mr McGrath said that with the Cork office serving the southern region, improving the urgent passport application service needed to be prioritised.

“If passports must be printed in Dublin for the foreseeable future, surely we can look at providing a two-day turnaround option,” the TD said.

Earlier this week, The Echo reported that the projected date of completion for the new office has slipped back from the end of this year to at least Christmas of next year.