Are passports a rip off?

I think €75 is ok compared with other places as clubman mentioned. I had awful trouble with the passport office the last time i renewed mine but got it sorted in the end. They could be a bit more friendly :)
 
I think that any passport free is a rip off.

Providing me with a passport so that I can proof my citizenship and/or identity should be a duty of the goverment (who's services I pay for with taxes).

They make picture ID mandatory theses days for anything from bank accounts to travel on an intra-ireland plane.

A passport is not luxury these days, it is essentional.

Other European countries hand out ID cards for a resonable prices (Germany charges nothing for the 1st issue and after 10 year it expires and than they charge 8€) that can be used for proofing my ID and allow me travel throughout the Schengen Area and other EU and Eastern European countries.

Some countries like Finland or Austria charge a higher fee for ID's but they are then also having a CHIP with an electronic signature on it that I can use for online banking, electronic signature on e-mails or doing most goverment business online).

Passports should be free, it's the goverment that forces me to use them, so they should provide them.
 
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vague recollection of Dermot Ahern (when opening the new passport office in Balbriggan)saying the passport office made a profit of €29m last year on a turnover of less than €100 and hence no cost to the taxpayer for the new office. IMO €75 is ok though and the €5/6 An Post charge is good value for the service offered.
 
Pique318 said:
Just checked my Laser receipt from the PO when sending my Passport Express application and it's actually €7.50 they charge.
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See! this is the point i was making about the €75 PP. It will keep going up, like the bin tax people said "ah €6 is not enough". Than 4 monthslater it's €8. So the passport will keep going up, and i'm sure it won't only be because of inflation.
But then again it is only every 10 years, unless they change that too...
 
Pique318 said:
Just checked my Laser receipt from the PO when sending my Passport Express application and it's actually €7.50 they charge.
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Sorry - the info on is obviously incorrect. See the An Post website instead which confirms that the charge is actually €7.50.
Sn@kebite said:
See! this is the point i was making about the €75 PP.
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Do you know for a fact that the Passport Express charge actually increased by €0.50 and that the incorrect information on is actually not simply a mistake? In any case Passport Express is an optional service for those who want a passport in a rush - it's not a charge for the passport itself. Apply early enough and you can avoid the charge.
 
The an post service is two way express with full tracking and a guarantee that it will take no longer than 10 working days. just because its an semi state organisation does not mean that good service should not be charged for at a reasonable rate. Again IMO €7/€7.50 is reasonable for a two way express service.
there is a facility for urgent/emergency issue of passport direct from the passport office but the charge is €50 extra per passport.
 
Btw, do the new Irish passports contain the contactless chip containing biometric data? If so, this will add significantly to the cost of producing a passport. Those things, and the associated processing infrastructure requried, aint cheap.
 
I don't think that they are issuing biometric passports yet - there was some spiel about them a while ago but I'm not sure what happened. I do believe that some of the recent changes (e.g. the hard plastic photo page, possibly containing RFID or other storage/communications technology, the watermarked version of the individua's photo etc.) are already in place in preparation for full biometric passports. I could be wrong though.
 
cuchulainn said:
vague recollection of Dermot Ahern (when opening the new passport office in Balbriggan)saying the passport office made a profit of €29m last year on a turnover of less than €100 and hence no cost to the taxpayer for the new office. IMO €75 is ok though and the €5/6 An Post charge is good value for the service offered.
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What kind of BS is that from Dermot Ahern? Sure the profit from the €29m would surely have been returned to the minister for finance if it had not been spent on the new office. Its a stealth tax really, it makes profit for the government which is returned to the exchequer.
 
CM is correct again. here is the information for the opening of the Balbriggan office and there is mention of €26m being spent to implement the new passport service etc. no mention of the €29m profit so I got that information somewhere else. www.dfa.ie/home/index.aspx?id=25621
 
Why is it that every time a state body runs at a loss they are accused of being wasteful and yet if they run at a profit they are accused of operating a stealth tax. It's such a stupid expression.
€75 for a document that lasts 10 years (or €7.5 a year) is bugger all. The systems that are required to generate controlled documents are complex and costly. They are not selling stamps.
So the answer is no, it’s not a rip-off. It’s not even a high price.
 
Well said, Purple.

I am grateful i live in a democracy (well, sort of) where I can get a passport. There are many people in the world who are not entitled to a passport at all.

Give it a rest. If you think €75 is too much, write to Dermot Ahern.
 
Purple said:
Why is it that every time a state body runs at a loss they are accused of being wasteful and yet if they run at a profit they are accused of operating a stealth tax. It's such a stupid expression.
€75 for a document that lasts 10 years (or €7.5 a year) is bugger all.
So the answer is no, it’s not a rip-off. It’s not even a high price.
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Slash said:
Give it a rest. If you think €75 is too much, write to Dermot Ahern.
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I know you're both right. But there's no problem in being sceptical of politics, at least that way you can't be deceived.
 
ClubMan said:
I don't think that they are issuing biometric passports yet - there was some spiel about them a while ago but I'm not sure what happened. I do believe that some of the recent changes (e.g. the hard plastic photo page, possibly containing RFID or other storage/communications technology, the watermarked version of the individua's photo etc.) are already in place in preparation for full biometric passports. I could be wrong though.
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The UK passports now come with a chip, so I'd say your right that Irish ones will follow suit soon
 
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