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

We now have more than 770 staff in the Passport Office compared with 450 last summer. Within the next six weeks or so that number should be up to 900. That effectively means a doubling of staff in the Passport Office over the past six or eight months.

I agree with the Deputy on the turnaround times. Passport express is a bit of a misnomer. It is not an express service. It is a much slower, paper-based service through the post. That is certainly an outdated marketing term now. We are looking to move away from the terminology of passport express and to replace it with something like passport in the post or whatever. Ultimately, we want to get to the point where everybody applies online. By the way, over 90% are already online. We need to get to 100%. It is a much cleaner, more transparent, safer and faster system.

Up until a few weeks ago it was taking 40 working days for first-time applications through passport online. It is now down to 35 and falling. The Deputy said that a mistake on an application can start the clock all over again. We have also corrected that issue. If someone's forms were not completed correctly and they need to send in new forms, they do not start an eight-week period at that point; they will get it turned around within three weeks of that correction. We are responding to the constructive criticism we are getting from Deputies.

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