Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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515. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the required additional resources needed to address additional demand for passport services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38667/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Since January 2017, a total of 230 Temporary Clerical Officers have been assigned to the Passport Service and appointed to the Passport Offices in Balbriggan, Mount Street and Cork. Temporary Clerical Officers in the Passport Service are typically hired on twenty-six week contracts and most of these initial contracts were extended during the year for a further six – eight weeks. Further, a number of additional permanent Clerical Officers from within the Department have been assigned to the Passport Service in response to the exceptionally high volumes of applications received this year. Targeted overtime for the Passport Service was also sanctioned to increase processing capacity. These measures contributed to bringing the average turnaround time for Passport Express renewals in line with the target of fifteen working days. First-time applications and applications to replace lost, stolen or damaged passports take longer due to additional security checks.

The Passport Service launched an Online Passport Renewal Service on 30 March 2017, through which adult citizens resident anywhere in the world can renew their passports quickly, securely and efficiently. As take-up of the Online Passport Application service increases, it will enhance overall passport processing capacity and contribute to reducing turnaround times for all channels. I therefore urge all Deputies to encourage adults who are renewing their passports to do so online. The turnaround time for online renewals is just ten working days plus postage time.

Further, I urge all Deputies to encourage citizens to register for the free passport renewal reminder email service provided by my Department at the following web address: www.eforms.gov.ie/en/reminder/passport/.

My Department will continue to monitor the situation and the need for additional resources will be kept under active review.