Ms Siobh?n Byrne:

This is an exceptional year. On our full complement of staff for a normal busy season, there were about 600 staff in the passport service in 2019 to process applications that year. That would be a normal year. This year is an exceptional year because of the high demand but that will not continue forever. It is more appropriate to hire temporary staff when we hit an exceptionally high year as we have at the moment. As Mr. Conlan said, the contracts for these staff are much longer than we would normally provide for. That leads into our planning and forecasting for next year and the work we have to continue to do in quarter 4 this year. For instance, with foreign birth registrations, FBRs, it is important we maintain the high levels of staff so we can prioritise those areas when passport demand subsides a little.