John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his opening statement and the helpful comprehensive report attached to it.

I will start with the issue of passports, which is a challenging area, particularly coming out of Covid. I commend all the staff in the Passport Office who have done exceptional and brilliant work over what were challenging times in difficult circumstances and who are probably facing into a tsunami of applications similar to what we have seen in January and February. New records for passport applications and passports being issued were set in both months. There were 156,000 passports issued in February alone and 1.4 million applications are anticipated this year.

I welcome that there are 300 additional staff in the passport service. Have they been added since June last year? What plans are in place to further expand staff numbers to cater for the growing need?

It is understandable that there is such a need. People have not been able to go on holidays in recent years and then there is the challenge of Brexit as well. I would like to get a breakdown of applications coming in from Irish citizens in the North and across the water in the UK as well, if the Minister has those figures.

My colleague, Senator Ó Donnghaile, has consistently raised the need for the establishment of a passport office in Belfast. I would like to get the Minister's views on that. I know it is something he said he has looked at previously, but he wanted to try to promote online applications in the first instance. Could I get a view on the matter given the growing number of applications? Could I also get a timeline on new recruits coming into the Department?

Foreign birth registrations have been a source of frustration. I have asked the Minister about the issue a number of times in the past year. I know staff had to be redeployed during Covid and foreign birth registrations were halted other than for emergencies or in cases that were deemed to be a priority. There is a considerable backlog. Can the Minister provide the current number waiting at this point? I know he said he would deploy more human resources to deal with the backlog. Could we get a timeframe for that? It was stated that the expected processing time is approximately two years. However, if the Minister looks at his high-level metrics, it is stated that it is hoped to achieve 50% within the two-year period. Am I correct in that analysis?