Noel McCarthy (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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168. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to outline the increase, if any, in staff numbers in the Passport Office this year; the staff positions in the Passport Office that were filled as a result of any increase; his Department’s plans to further boost staff numbers in the Passport Office ahead of the busier summer holiday period; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27613/25]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy McCarthy for the question. The passport service is experiencing a high level of demand for passports as our citizens prepare for upcoming summer travel plans. Thanks to operational and staffing plans implemented by my Department, I am pleased to say that the passport service is successfully responding to the current level of demand, and we have issued over 440,000 passports and passport cards to date this year. All turnaround times are at their target level and there is no backlog.

This time of year is particularly busy for the customer service hub based in Balbriggan. I was out there recently meeting staff, and I am pleased to say that agents in the hub are responding to almost 2,400 phone and webchat queries per day, which is an extraordinary number. Ensuring that the passport service has enough staff to respond to demand is a key priority for my Department and is kept under constant review. The passport service undertakes advance workforce planning based on the forecasted demand for passports and my Department’s management board approves this staffing plan annually.

As a result of this extensive planning process, the passport service is well resourced to meet forecasted demand for 2025. There are currently 858 staff working in the passport service, which represents 98% of the approved staffing target. This includes 133 temporary clerical officers who have joined the passport service since November 2024. We now have the highest number of sanctioned staff ever in our passport service.

Having recently visited the largest passport office in Balbriggan and seen the work being done there by staff who are responding to customer queries, managing huge volumes of documents and processing applications from start to finish, I say "thank you" to them for the work they are doing. I am satisfied that the current level of staffing is appropriate to meet demand for this critical citizen service.

I encourage people, as we all should, to please check their passport because that can help with meeting the demand. We can always try to help people in difficult situations. It is much easier if people check their passport, and they will be much less likely to get in trouble with the family as well. You do not want to be the one who tells them they cannot go on their summer holidays.

Noel McCarthy (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Tánaiste's response. I acknowledge the important work of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the passport service in overseeing a considerable increase in the number of passports issued over the past five years. I also welcome the rise in staff numbers over the same period.

As public representatives, we often see a large rise in the number of passport queries in the run-up to the school holidays and I have no doubt this is one of the passport service's busiest periods of the year. That is why it is important additional staff are hired during this period, which the Tánaiste has acknowledged, to ensure the current turnaround times are kept and no processing backlogs emerge. What percentage of additional staff recruited for the summer period will be permanent appointments?

In addition, it is my experience from engagement with the passport service that sometimes production issues can unfortunately emerge. As such, is the Department giving any consideration to further increasing passport production facilities in the State?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I will double-check that I am correct but my understanding is that of the 858 staff, approximately 133 are temporary clerical officers. I will double-check the split between temporary and permanent staff.

I thought the Deputy might have a particular interest in Cork so I checked and found that 117 staff are working in the Passport Office in Cork. It is not possible to have any more staff in Cork because the building is now full. However, the second bit of good news I have for the Deputy is that there are plans to move the passport service in Cork to a new building. I believe that will be ready next year, which will give us an opportunity to further expand our footprint and staffing numbers in Cork as there is need and demand for that.

From budgetary and staffing points of view, I am satisfied we are in a good place. We will review this if we need to step up a bit. We can do that but at the moment, all of the projections are that staffing and demand are aligned. We need to continue to keep a very close eye on that.

Noel McCarthy (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I wholeheartedly welcome the news about the possible move to a new building in Cork that will open next year. Are any efforts being made to increase the time period when an adult renewal application is instead considered on a first-time basis? Currently, a passport renewal is considered a first-time application if the previous passport was issued more than 15 years ago. I thank the Tánaiste for the continued work the Passport Office is doing.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy McCarthy. I will check with the Passport Office if it plans to look further at that. There is always a passport reform process under way. We have seen a number of reforms. We have come a very long way from the Covid backlog and all the challenges then to now having a system that is very efficient. It is a good example of public service reform and also of digitisation. I meet so many of my constituents, and I remember this from getting my own passport, who say you take the picture on your phone while standing in your kitchen, send it off online and you are often shocked at how quickly the passport arrives in the post. That is not to say there cannot be improvements. I hear stories from colleagues about how the process interacts with the gardaí who are witnessing the forms. Gardaí are very busy so are there better ways to do that. There are challenges, and rightful ones, about making sure we have very robust procedures for getting a first-time passport for a child because we need to get child protection right. Then there is the point the Deputy made about when is a passport considered a first-time passport for an adult as well. Let me take that point away, examine it and give it some consideration. We are in a reasonably good space here and I thank all of the staff who worked to make that a reality.