Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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534. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade when the Passport Office will resume full services; the efforts that will be made to reduce the backlog of applications waiting to be processed; the number of passports being processed weekly since 1 January 2021; the number of passports waiting to be processed; the reason the Passport Office cannot continue to operate to process passport applications which are a right of each citizen; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17458/21]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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In line with Government guidance that, at Level 5 of the National Framework on Living with COVID-19 only essential work should take place, the Passport Service continues to provide a high-quality essential service in line with Government measures to reduce social contact and combat the spread of COVID-19.

This essential service is available for those who are required to travel due to the death or serious illness of a family member or meet the criteria for a reasonable excuse for travel as defined in the recent amendment to the Health Act 1947, which came into effect on 1 February 2021.

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

Irish citizens who are resident overseas should make contact through the local Irish Embassy or Consulate General.

While normal processing of passports has been paused, the staff of the Passport Service continue to produce emergency and urgent applications, to offer customer service through WebChat and to assist with consular assistance for Irish citizens overseas. The Passport Service has issued approximately 2,000 urgent applications, approximately 170 emergency applications and approximately 20,000 simple adult renewals since the beginning of the year. Our Webchat team have answered more than 30,000 queries. At present, there are approximately 75,000 Passport Online applications in the system. When operations resume at Level 4, all applications received via Passport Online will be processed. The Passport Service is confident, taking into account measures to ensure a safe workplace, that any Passport Online backlog can be cleared in six to eight weeks.

There are currently approximately 1,700 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.