Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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332. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the number of passport applications by United Kingdom citizens currently being processed; the extra resources he will be deploy to the Passport Office to deal with the increased demand following Brexit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19187/16]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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As of 1 July, there were 53,139 passport applications in progress across the Passport Service. While it is not possible to identify which of these applicants also hold British citizenship, I can confirm that of this amount, 6,201 were submitted using Northern Ireland Passport Express. A further 6,659 were submitted via our Embassy in London.

Passport applications figures, including those relating to applications submitted from Northern Ireland, are lower than they were at the same time last month. On 31 May, there were a total of 68,009 applications in the system, of which 8,254 were submitted using Northern Ireland Passport Express and 5,501 submitted via Embassy London.

While there is likely to be an increase in the number of first-time applications submitted from the UK and from British people living overseas, it is too early to assess how significant this will be. We are, however, seeing an increased number of queries relating to passports and citizenship from Northern Ireland, Great Britain and elsewhere.

The Passport Service will continue to closely monitor the situation to ensure the effective deployment of staff resources and to minimize the impact of the high volume of applications on turnaround times and on customer service. The need for additional resources will be kept under review.