Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to provide an update on the passport service, particularly during the busy summer period. The service is already outperforming any previous year, despite the challenges that it has encountered over the past two years. Prior to the pandemic, the busiest year for passports was 2019, when in excess of 900,000 passports were issued. The passport service is currently outperforming 2019 by almost 20%. More than 720,000 passports have been issued to date in 2022, compared to 634,000 in the whole of last year.

As Deputies will appreciate, there has been a significant increase in passport demand after two years of pandemic-related travel restrictions. This level of demand is not unique to Ireland. In countries such as the UK and US, the turnaround time for all types of passports can be up to ten weeks. During this period of unprecedented demand, the passport service has, in fact, decreased the processing times for first-time online applications from 40 to 25 working days. This is a decrease of 40% for complex first-time applications since March of this year.

Processing times for online adult renewals are among the fastest in the world, with almost half of these applicants receiving their passports within two working days. To achieve these results and to continue to improve the service, the Department of Foreign Affairs has made an unprecedented investment in the passport service. On staffing, more than 570 staff have been assigned to the service since June of last year, including 200 since May 2022. The addition of these staff members has allowed the service to achieve its current turnaround times in the face of enormous demand.

In addition to significantly more staff being assigned, the service has made important improvements that will help to ensure that passport applications can be processed within turnaround times, including assigning a large number of the new staff to the customer service hub, which has greatly increased the number of calls and webchats being answered and is assisting with customers getting access to the information they need. In recent weeks, the number of calls handled by the hub has increased to more than 2,000 per day. The passport service has worked with An Garda Síochána to develop a system for verifying Garda witnesses on passport applications in cases where the Garda member's signature cannot be verified. This system assists in reducing the number of applications that are delayed due to a failure to verify witness details. Intensive training of new staff and upskilling of existing staff has been underway for several months to increase the resources that can process complex applications, such as first-time child applications.

Passport Online is continuing to expand and is available to 97% of our citizens around the world. The availability of Passport Online worldwide will continue to enhance the customer experience and mean even more efficiencies in the Passport Service. The Passport Service is currently operating at its highest capacity ever, hitting an average of 6,000 passports per day, and considerable improvements are being seen across the system. The Passport Service is confident that the increased resources that have been allocated will continue to improve the service for all our citizens.

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