Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Already this year, from 1 January to 16 February, there were 129,000 applications. That is a 16% increase on the same period last year, and not in the holiday period itself. Normally, temporary staff are employed to tackle the increased demand and the number of applications and we have discussed this before. However, the Government has not dealt with this.

I refer to the increase year round and from Brexit, in particular. There seems to be a detached approach. The Government seems to be satisfied to allow the applicants to wait longer than the normal 15 day turnaround time. Does the Tánaiste accept that these delays in the normal turnaround time are now the norm? Why is the Government not planning to deal with increased demand by increasing staff numbers for the year round increased demand in the passport service?

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