Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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97. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the additional staff he will allocate to the Passport Office over the busy summer period to deal with passport applications. [9206/16]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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To address the anticipated increase in passport applications over the summer period the Passport Service has recruited Temporary Clerical Officers who will work a total of 5,122 weeks this year. Additional Temporary Clerical Officers will be recruited shortly for a total of 780 weeks to manage the significant increase in phone calls and customer queries over the remaining peak period. In view of the sustained increase in applications over last year processing work has been redistributed across passport offices in recent months and staff re-deployed from other areas of the Department as needed to respond to the increased workload.

I strongly recommend that citizens apply for passports at least six weeks in advance of any planned travel and take special care to ensure that application forms are correctly completed. Submission of applications in good time is particularly important during the peak season which runs from now until August.

The Passport Service will continue to closely monitor the situation, including to ensure the effective deployment of staff resources.