The Passport Service has issued 450,000 passports to date this year and is on track to have issued half a million passports by the end of this month.
Virtually all complete passport applications are being processed within advertised turnaround times.
The Passport Service is well-staffed and is in an excellent position to deliver the demand forecast for the rest of this year. Ensuring that we have enough staff to respond to demand is a priority for my Department and is kept under constant review.
The Passport Service assigned 40 Temporary Clerical Officers to its offices in Balbriggan and Dublin 2 in April and there are plans to assign an additional 6 Temporary Clerical Officers to its offices in Cork and Dublin 2 in May. In addition, processes are underway to fill 10 permanent roles. The current total number of staff with the Passport Service is 830.
The Passport Service continually reviews demand and offers overtime, on a voluntary basis, to staff when necessary to meet demand, avoid delays and prevent backlogs. Overtime is currently being offered to Passport Service staff as demand is high at the moment.
My Department recently ran a multimedia campaign reminding passport holders to apply for their passports on time and online. The successful campaign focused on the benefits of applying online and encouraged citizens to check their passports in advance of booking foreign travel in 2024. The campaign increased the number of applications received in the early part of this year, which will help enormously in easing demand during the busy summer period.
The Passport Service is successfully meeting the current high demand for passports and expects to issue half a million passports by the end of this month. This is a very high level of service delivery in the first five months of the year.
The Passport Service continues to review demand and implement additional mitigation measures such as overtime when necessary.
The Passport Online service offers Irish citizens the ability to apply online for their passport 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is a user-friendly, efficient service that consistently offers processing times up to 4 times faster than paper-based passport renewal applications. Passport Online is now available to 99.9% of all applicants across the world.
I would ask the Deputy to encourage his constituents to apply online for the quickest, cheapest and most efficient service.
