The fingerprints used for biometric passports will only be recognised by the IT system for a year, Identity Malta chairman Joe Vella Bonnici said.

“I am not sure what happens then. We are trying to solve it,” he said. “This is just one of the problems I found."

Although this does not affect documents which have already been issued, people who require a new passport because it has been stolen or lost, for example, would need to have all the biometrics done again.

“Suffice to say that, for six years, we had to live with expired ID cards. Now we are 65 per cent through a mass roll-out. If we can do it now, why didn’t the previous administration do it? What was so problematic,” he asked.

“And all the systems – ID cards, passports, residence permits – are distinct and cannot communicate with each other. This was done intentionally for security purposes but you sometimes have to balance this with convenience.”

Mr Vella Bonnici, who was speaking in an interview with The Business Observer, distributed with Times of Malta, estimates that the changes needed to the IT system will cost hundreds of thousands of euros and could take as long as three or four years.

Although this does not affect documents which have already been issued, people who required a new passport because it has been stolen or lost, for example, would need to have all the biometrics done again.

More in Times of Malta.