One woman waiting for a passport renewal says an office in Britain tried to help her, as she can't get through to the office in Dublin.

Sinead Bellew says she started the renewal process on March 18th for her son, to further his application for a provisional licence.

The online service took her payment, but then told her a few days later she had to resubmit the photograph.

She told The Hard Shoulder she now feels locked out of the system.

"We tried to do that and the resubmission form told us there was an issue.

"So the bottom line for us was that the online service - while it seems and sounds good, and is supposed to be very effective and fast - the photo recognition clearly works on the app element.

"But doesn't then work, as far as we can see, when it's to be finally processed in the Passport Office - there seems to be a disconnect between the two".

'You get basically nowhere'

She says she has tried calling the Irish Passport Office and chatting online.

"You can't get through - there's just a voice message and 'Please call back'.

"So you keep doing that, and you get basically nowhere, you can't leave a message.

"There is another option then, the webchat: you have to wait until the webchat is green - it never is green, it stays grey.

"So there is no option for any kind of connection whatsoever".

An Irish passport is seen in October 2019. Picture by: Mick Flynn / Alamy Stock Photo

Sinead says she then tried sending an e-mail, with mixed results.

"I Googled the Passport Office, I thought 'I'll e-mail them'.

"I obviously clicked on the wrong thing, I got through to the passport office in London.

"They came back to me 25 minutes later, giving me advice on how to get through to the Irish Passport Office.

"Their response was so fast, it was a great response basically - but it was the London passport office trying to help me get through to the Irish Passport Office."

Asked where her application stands now, she says nothing has been clarified.

"We are five weeks now tomorrow from the actual date that we first started this process.

"I cannot ring them, I can't get through to them - I'm sort of thinking: 'Do we need to go up and camp outside the Passport Office?'

"At this moment we are limbo, we don't know where we're at".

She adds: "There's actually no way of going forward and there's no way of going back.

"It's almost like as if we paid our €75, we were in the system and now we're kind of kicked out of the system.

"It's like as if we've been timed out".

Main image: A woman holds both an Irish and British passport in front of her face. Picture by: Mick Flynn / Alamy Stock Photo