Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy would expect, the Passport Service is currently experiencing a high level of demand for first-time passports and renewals. We will probably do 100,000 this month. This year, we could end up doing 1.7 million passports. We have never reached 1 million before, even at the height of travel before Covid. That is the extent of the demand increase we are expecting. By the end of March, we will probably have 900 people working in the Passport Service, which is just under double what we had last summer. We are putting substantial resources into responding to this demand. To put it into context, out of a total of 113,000 applications currently with the Passport Service, 73,000 are for first-time applications. Some 32,000 of these are incomplete applications where the applicant has either not sent in any documentation after applying online or additional documentation has been requested. We need to make sure the application process works, that the turnaround times at the Department happen more efficiently and that people who are making applications fully understand what they need to do.

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