A heartbroken Dublin mam was forced to leave her 10-year-old daughter behind when jetting off on their family holiday after an unfortunate passport mix-up.
Samantha O'Connor was left frustrated by the lack of communication from the passport office after realising her daughter Ellen may be left at home just days before they headed to Greece.
On the Monday before the family were set to fly, Samantha realised that her daughter's passport was out of date.
She told Dublin Live that she became overwhelmed with all the paperwork for the foreign holiday and, with only a few days left until their flight, she immediately started to panic.
They got in contact with local TDs in an effort to speed their passport renewal process along, and Samantha hoped that the issue would be resolved in time.
She said: "We were making sure we had everything sorted when we realised that the child's passport had expired.
"It was a renewal - it's not like she hasn't had a passport. She's had two passports previously.
"I couldn't put my holiday forward because I'd have to give five working days to do that."
Samantha continued to badger local TDs and the passport office, but she felt she was left in the dark the whole time.
And she was left with little option but to leave without 10-year-old Ellen, who had to stay home with her aunt.
Ellen and her father booked a second flight, hoping to join the rest of the family in Greece once the passport arrived.
However, she said the family's holiday was completely ruined by the stress of waiting for the passport.
"I flew out with my other daughter here on Saturday," Samantha told us from Kolymbia on the island of Rhodes.
"My husband could follow us out with her on the second week.
"But my whole first week of the holiday went sitting by the phone waiting and checking emails. My whole first six weeks here literally went sitting by the phone and making sure I had internet and signal in case someone was going to ring me, which they never did."
She said the family couldn't cancel the holiday as they had spent a whopping €4,000 on the trip.
And Ellen was left extremely disappointed not to be able to join her family.
"I had to leave my 10-year-old with my sister because we paid €4,000 for this holiday," she said.
"We went all inclusive. It's our first holiday in two years and it never happened for her.
"She was devastated at the beginning. I was devastated. I was inconsolable even going out on the flight because of the thoughts of leaving her behind."
Samantha said she has been working throughout the pandemic and had little time to spend with her kids, saying "this whole holiday was a way of doing something together as a family again."
And she was annoyed by the lack of empathy about the process and found it extremely difficult to get on the phone with the passport office.
"I just think the communication is very, very bad," she said.
"I went on the passport checker to discover it had now been posted.
"But at that point we only had a few days left on their holiday."
Dublin Bay South Sinn Fein TD Chris Andrews is calling for more staff in the passport office as they deal with the lockdown backlog.
He said: "The reality is that, during normal times there is a core staff of approximately 450 in the passport section which is increased during the peal period by a total of approximately 200 to a total of 650.
"But at present staff numbers are significantly reduced with only about 500 personnel in total being left to deal with demands."
A spokesperson from the Department of Foreign Affairs said: " The turnaround time for applications such as child renewals and first time applicants begins only when we receive all required supporting documentation.
"When an application has been correctly completed and all documentation has been received the Passport Service is making every effort to issue passports as quickly as possible."
