Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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364. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons waiting for an appointment after applying to be issued a PPS number. [43191/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The SAFE registration process, which involves the authentication of a person's identity in a face-to-face interview, is the normal method of processing an application for a Personal Public Service Number (PPS Number) and a Public Services Card (PSC).

At the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, my Department temporarily suspended the SAFE registration process and the online appoint system used to manage those interviews.

This decision was taken in order to comply with HSE and World Health Organisation guidelines in respect of social distancing thus ensuring a reduced footfall in our offices, to protect the health and wellbeing of our customers and staff.

While SAFE registrations were resumed again in June when restrictions eased, the Department's capacity to accommodate SAFE registration interviews was lower than was the case pre-pandemic, due to the social distancing measures introduced to protect customers and staff.

In order to deal with these constraints and as an exceptional measure my Department did introduce an email and postal service through which PPS Number applications could be made. This means that PPS Number applicants do not, at present, need to attend an appointment to be issued a PPS Number

Through this service, my Department has allocated almost 39,000 PPS Numbers, and is currently examining another 18,000 applications, although many of these may be duplicate applications so it is not possible at this stage to state with certainty how many applications are currently awaiting a decision.

Almost 200 additional staff have been assigned to this work in recent weeks and I expect all applications will be processed over the coming weeks.

As Level 5 restrictions are lifted, my Department is now resuming SAFE registrations for PPS Number applicants and focusing on increasing the capacity in our offices in respect of such appointments, and I expect that capacity will be increased over Quarter 1 of 2021.

I trust this clarifies the position for the Deputy.