With the holiday season winding down, there are no official statistics on how many holidaymakers this year fell prey to a short-term but stressful condition known as passport amnesia. Generally, it strikes its victims every 10 years, but in acute cases it can recur annually. Sufferers know there is something they must do before they can take off for foreign climes, but they undergo a series of inexplicable memory lapses that can continue until it's nearly time to book the taxi for the airport.
Typically, full cognitive processes are restored at the last minute, followed by a series of frenzied panic attacks that go something like, "Oh my God, I didn't renew my passport." The only people who can provide an antidote are in Molesworth Street, Dublin, or South Mall, Cork.
Passport amnesia appears to be widespread. The two Passport Offices issued 283,505 passports between January and June of this year, a 1 per cent increase on last year. They estimate that up to 35 per cent of those were same-day passports, issued to people who needed to travel straight away.
"We can refuse a last-minute application if the required documentation is not present or the application is not properly completed," says the Department of Foreign Affairs.
"There is no passport legislation in force, and our policy on issuing passports stems from various acts, primarily dealing with children. Over the years, a body of case law has evolved from court decisions relating to passports."
But while the Passport Office asks that people allow 10 working days if applying by the Passport Express service and three to five weeks by ordinary post, it appears it is powerless to refuse same-day applications when supported by proof of travel, the correct paperwork and the processing fee.
Most people probably don't know that, if all else fails, they may be able to get a passport outside working hours from Iveagh House, where the diplomatic duty officer "has the authority to issue passports in emergency situations, such as urgent business abroad, where Ireland is the beneficiary, death or serious illness abroad or where a honeymoon couple may have lost their passport", according to the department.
"In addition, the Passport Office provides an outside-of-hours service at weekends, for people who have lost or had their passports stolen. We would rather deal with all passport applications through our public office during normal business hours, but in order to . . . provide a proper service to the public, an outside-of-hours service is deemed necessary."
A passport amnesiac's symptoms can persist right up to the moment of arrival at the airport. When asked how many people have arrived at its check-in desks without passports this summer, a Ryanair spokesperson replied: "How long is a piece of string?"
To help combat the problem, Aer Rianta has included a chapter on passports in its guide to Dublin Airport, which it hopes will help travellers. It advises those going abroad to apply for passports at least two weeks in advance.
But even having a passport in your clutches when you arrive at the airport doesn't mean another insidious malady, holiday fever, won't make you lose it before you get on the aircraft. Siobhβn Moore of Aer Rianta says that 20-25 passports are found lying around Dublin Airport each month, and handed over to the airport police. "People get very excited when they are going on holiday: the adrenalin is pumping, and they are watching their bags and looking out for flight information. With the best will in the world, it's easy to leave your passport down and walk off without it."
Replacement passports issued for those lost and stolen represented just less than 3.5 per cent of the total issued in the first half of the year. Almost all of them were to take the place of lost passports, which means a surprisingly low proportion was to replace stolen ones.
Approximately 30 per cent of the passports lost or reported stolen are subsequently found and returned to the Passport Office. The most common reason given for losing passports is "moving house".
