Mayo holidaymakers looking to quickly renew their passport before a last-minute jaunt abroad can be reassured that their application will be dealt with expediently as normal passport services resume.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin announced this week that a backlog in applications caused by industrial action at the Passport Office in March has been cleared. Applicants who use Swiftpost for an express passport are once more guaranteed to have it processed within 10 working days.
However, leaving holiday bookings until the last minute may not have been the wisest choice as according to the Irish Travel Agents Association, there are only 350,000 package holiday seats on offer from Ireland this summer, compared to more than a million in 2006. With this reduction in holidays available there will not be huge savings on last-minute deals.
