An Emyvale woman was left in a "devastating" position earlier today following delays in her youngest daughter receiving a first-time passport.
Martina Keenan and her family were hoping to board a flight to Spain at 2pm today, but according to the mother-of-two, difficulties "beyond their control" and a "complete lack of empathy and correspondence" from the passport service, left Martina with no other option but to fly out alone with her eldest child.
Meanwhile, her partner and their youngest daughter will wait patiently at home in the hopes of the two-year-old's passport being made available to the family before the end of this week, despite having applied for it at the beginning of April.
Martina described the situation as "heartbreaking" as this would have been the families first holiday together since their youngest daughter was born, just shortly before the Covid pandemic.
The Monaghan native warned that "many people" are struggling with similar issues across the country and are losing out on "thousands of euro" over flight cancellations due to under-staffing in passport centres:
