Rabbitte queries claims TDs got 6,200 passports last year
FORMER Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said last night that official information did not support the Taoiseach's claim that 6,200 passports were issued last year on a TDs' drop-box system.
Mr Ahern made the claim last month when seeking to contextualise his role in securing an Irish passport for Norman Turner, the Manchester businessman behind a proposed casino development in Dublin.
But it now emerges that the section dealing with the drop-box system also provides quick passports for a number of State agencies, including the HSE and those submitted by passport office staff in the case of relatives and family.
Figures revealed the section processed a total of 6,326 applications in 2007 from all sources and was unable to say how many of those were sought by TDs and Senators.
Applications through Oireachtas members were recorded manually over the years.
"A system has now been put in place to record electronically details of applications by members of the Oireachtas," Minister Dermot Ahern said.
- Senan Molony
