I need my passenger airbag de-activated for the arrival of my first born due any day now, so I contacted my local Skoda dealer and they are quoting

A bit crap I think as other manufacturers have a simple on/off switch using the driver's key!!!

You can get that as a factory fitted options so it might be possible to retrofit it, but you'd need one of the Skoda techs to give a firm yes or no on that.

The garage has not been telling you porkies this time. It may well be a simple switch to disable it, but the responsibilities and insurance side of the car are affected by it, and hence they need to do this formal/the hard way.