Mr. Niall Burgess:

On the communication front, from the moment we realised that the communications were overwhelming our resources, we have taken resources from across the Department to deal with this in three successive phases. There are people from divisions right across the Department - from Mr. de Búrca's division in Irish Aid, Mr. Gormley's in corporate services, and Ms Cullinane's in strategy and performance - who are volunteering, working with the Passport Office to help them on communications, particularly on web chat. We have taken resources from elsewhere to work the phones and we have resources now helping us to deal with the passport backlog as well. This is a collective, corporate effort across the Department.