Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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368. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if it will be ensured there will be sufficient staff in place to deal with the backlog of applications for passports and the anticipated demand for new passports once Covid-19 travel restrictions are no longer required; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3634/21]

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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379. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the way in which persons who need passports for urgent or compassionate reasons can apply for same during level 5 Covid-19 restrictions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3981/21]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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409. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if the Passport Office can issue a passport for members of families on an emergency basis when they are relocating and moving abroad to access work or for other reasons (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4310/21]

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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412. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the processes available for persons to apply for a passport under Covid-19 restrictions. [4362/21]

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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414. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the reason standard passport applications cannot be processed during the level 5 restrictions; the way in which he plans to deal with the backlog of passport applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4391/21]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 368, 379, 409, 412 and 414 together.

The Passport Service has paused processing of routine applications while Ireland is at Level 5 of the National Framework for Living with COVID-19. Passport Service staff have been temporarily reassigned to provide consular assistance for Irish citizens overseas.

The Passport Service continues to provide an emergency passport service for Irish citizens at home and abroad. The service is available for those who are required to travel due to the death or serious illness of a family member or because the applicant requires emergency medical treatment.

Applicants who require a passport for emergency purposes, or to travel for urgent reasons, should contact the Passport Service via our Customer Service Hub Webchat function on our website.

The Passport Service has a comprehensive plan in place to resume all services, in line with the National Framework for Living with COVID-19. When operations resume at Level 4, all applications received via Passport Online will be processed.

The Passport Service has a great deal of experience in dealing with peaks in demand, and we are confident that any backlog will be cleared quickly. When the Passport Service resumed operations in June 2020, the backlog was cleared in four weeks. It was similar in December 2020 with the majority of the backlog cleared within three weeks.

The Passport Service plans to resume processing of routine paper based applications such as Passport Express, Northern Ireland Passport Express and applications for Foreign Birth Registrations at Level 3 of the National Framework.