Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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525. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his views on issues raised by a person (details supplied) regarding the issuing of a passport. [12543/16]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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I can confirm that the two applications referenced have been processed and approved. Passports were subsequently delivered by An Post on 27 May.

Both passport applications were received by the Passport Service on 29 April through Passport Express. This service which is operated in partnership with An Post offers a target turnaround time of fifteen working days from posting for correctly completed passport renewal applications. Unfortunately, in the case of these applications the target was not met. It should be noted that the target is not a stated guarantee and the volume of passport applications has an impact on turnaround times. Overall applications are up almost 13% so far this year over last year which is exceptional.

To respond to the seasonal spike in demand and the more general increase in applications, 223 temporary staff have been recruited so far this year. This is an increase of 52 officers on last year. Furthermore, processing work has been redistributed across passport offices in recent months and staff re-deployed from other areas of the Department. The Passport Service will continue to closely monitor the situation to ensure the effective deployment of staff resources and that turnaround times are kept to within target as far as possible.

The Passport Service has faced challenges in recent weeks in adequately handling a very high volume of customer queries. Additional staffing resources are currently being allocated to the customer care area to assist and there will be enhancements to the on-line application tracking function and to web-based communications in the coming months. Again, I regret that in the case referenced the normal standards of customer service were not met. However, with the steps I have outlined I am confident that the situation will improve in the coming months.