How Ireland fixed its passport system
From round-the-block lineups to printing in minutes, we talked to someone who was there
Ireland once had such terrible passport lineups that entrepreneurial Dubliners would show up early, grab queue numbers, and sell their spots to people who arrived later. On the Functional Government Podcast, I talked to someone who was there when they transformed it into one of the fastest passport systems in Europe.
The turnaround destroyed dozens of jobs — queue-number scalpers — yet was widely celebrated. Everything used to be physical and slow. Now Ireland processes passport applications in minutes. This is a story about what happens when a government decides to actually fix something, and the surprising human side effects of modernization.
Read the full writeup and show notes on The Functional Government Podcast.
If you think Canadians deserve better government services, and want to understand why that’s hard and what to do about it, follow FxGov on Youtube or Substack.