Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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317. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will assign additional staff to the Passport Office during the peak holiday season or between May and September in order that telephone calls made to it can be answered by an official, passports can be issued without delay, and queries regarding passports can be followed up accordingly. [17003/16]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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The Passport Service is in peak season with 60,638 applications currently in the system. The level of demand is very high this year with an 11% rise in the number of applications year-to-date compared to the same period last year.

To respond to the seasonal spike in demand and the more general increase in applications, a total of 233 Temporary Clerical Officers have been recruited so far this year. This is an increase of 62 officers on last year. The officers are assisting permanent staff with passport entitlement checking and customer care, including the response to queries received via phone calls, emails and social media. Furthermore, processing work has been redistributed across passport offices and staff re-deployed form other areas of the Department as needed.

The Passport Service will continue to closely monitor the situation to ensure the effective deployment of staff resources and to minimise the impact of the high volume of applications on turnaround times and on customer service.