The Department of Foreign Affairs makes a substantial profit each year from issuing passports, the Dáil's Public Accounts Committee has been told.
Fianna Fáil's Deputy Seán Fleming said there were grounds for reducing the cost of passports, as they were so profitable.
The Secretary General of the Department, Dermot Gallagher, said the passport division cost about €10 million a year to run, not counting office rents.
But last year 670,000 passports were sold, bringing in about €39 million, while in the previous year the 600,000 passports sold brought in about €30 million.
The Department plans to issue passports with biometric data on them but there will be no price increase for these, he said.
A ten-year adult passport currently costs €75.
Labour's Joan Burton says this is, in effect, another stealth tax.
