Sinn Féin calls for passport office in Derry

Sinn Féin has called on the Government to open a passport office in Derry to cater for citizens in the North.

Sinn Féin has called on the Government to open a passport office in Derry to cater for citizens in the North.

Up to 25,000 applications from the North will be processed through the post this year, and Sinn Féin believes a local production facility is need to meet this demand.

The party's chief negotiator Martin McGuinness said the Government has a responsibility to defend the rights of Irish citizens in the North and to extend to them the full entitlements and benefits of Irish citizenship.

Mr McGuinness pointed out that the postal applications systems had been very successful.

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"The take-up has been phenomenal, including among unionists, and, as a result, Sinn Féin proposed that an office for the processing of Irish passports be opened in the North. "This would also bring much-needed jobs to an employment blackspot such as Derry."

The Department of Foreign Affairs said today that there were no immediate plans to open an office in Derry.

A spokesperson explained: "At the moment, passport applications from Northern Ireland are sent via the Swift Post service post offices to be processed at our production facility in Balbriggan, north Co Dublin.

"But because of the increasing number of applications in recent years, the department is keeping the situation under continuous review."

Last July, the Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern abolished the €25 fee for senior citizens in the North.