The Department of Foreign Affairs has been criticised after it emerged it still has not collected data on the amount of lost, stolen or misplaced Irish passports abroad.

It follows the dismissal of an Israeli Embassy official over the use of forged Irish passports in the assassination of Mahmoud Al Mabhouh in Dubai last January.

Fine Gael TD Billy Timmins said the failure to collect such information was "extremely surprising".

"You would think that in this day of modern technology and information sharing that the department could liaise with other governmental forces to get the figures. I have raised this issue before with the minister and I will be raising it again," said Timmins.

A spokeswoman for the department confirmed that it still does not have any figures for lost or stolen passports outside of Ireland, and also confirmed that the unnamed official has since left the embassy after Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin requested his expulsion last June.

Figures show that over 81,000 passports were issued to Irish citizens living abroad in 2009.

A figure which has previously been criticized as "worryingly high."