Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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331. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will report on the deployment of passport processing staff as part of the Covid-19 pandemic; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8088/21]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Despite the introduction of travel restrictions both nationally and internationally during the Covid-19 pandemic, Irish citizens continued to require passports, particularly our community living overseas.

To assist with the wider State response to COVID-19, Passport Service personnel have been redeployed, at the request of different Departments, into other, essential public service roles, such as contact tracing for the HSE, assisting the Department of Social Protection to facilitate the processing of COVID-19 related benefits and providing consular assistance to Irish citizens overseas.

The Passport Service has paused normal operations during Level 5 restrictions.

However, we continue to provide an emergency and urgent service. The emergency 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. The urgent service also assist citizens who are resident abroad who require a valid passport for visa purposes or citizens who require a renewal for work purposes. The Passport Service continues to operate its Customer Service Hub by WebChat to facilitate customer queries.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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332. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the number of passports in the backlog as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic noting the effect of the most recent level 5 lockdown in particular; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8089/21]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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At present, there are approximately 49,000 Passport Online applications in the system. When operations resume at Level 4, all applications received via Passport Online will be processed. The Passport Service have requested that applicants refrain from submitting documents until we resume operations. Applicants will be notified by e-mail when we resume processing.

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.

There are currently approximately 6,100 paper based applications in the system. The Passport Service plans to resume processing of routine paper based applications such as Passport Express and Northern Ireland Passport Express at Level 3 of the framework.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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333. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if additional staff or resources will be provided to expedite the processing of passports once the level 5 lockdown ends; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8090/21]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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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 provide a safe place of work at all Levels of the National Framework for Living with COVID-19. At Level 5, in line with Government guidance that only essential work should take place, the Passport Service provides an emergency and urgent service. At Level 4, the Passport Service will resume processing Passport Online applications with staff assigned into two teams and working at a strict social distance to ensure sufficient resilience to deliver the service. At Level 3, all staff are required to work at a strict social distance and the processing of paper based applications and Foreign Birth Registrations, which require greater interaction between staff, resume. At Level 1, the public counter of the Passport Service will re-open.

The Passport Online system has improved the ability of the Passport Service to process applications more efficiently. When the service resumed operations in June 2020, the backlog for Passport Online applications was cleared in 4 weeks. Between 1 December and 23 December, all Passport Online simple renewal applications were processed and most complex renewals were processed. First time applications are more complex and take more time to process.

There is no requirement, at this time, to allocate additional staff to the Passport Service. Similar to all work places, social distancing is required so this limits the occupation of buildings but my Department has been working closely with the Office of Public Works on this matter.