Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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883. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if a passport application by a person (details supplied) will be processed urgently owing to the current backlog within the passport office. [20442/21]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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In line with Government guidance at Level 5 of the National Framework on Living with COVID-19, 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. Supporting documentation will be required for such cases.

Applicants who require a passport for emergency purposes, or for non-essential 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.

With regard to the specific application about which the Deputy has inquired, the Passport Service issued correspondence to the applicant's mother on 15 April 2021 to provide an update on the status of the passport application.

Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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886. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the number of persons who have applied for a passport which have not yet been processed by county in tabular form. [20505/21]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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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 is confident, taking into account measures to ensure a safe workplace, that any Passport Online backlog can be cleared in six to eight weeks.

Since the beginning of this year the Passport Service has processed approximately 25,000 adult renewal applications and almost 3000 emergency and urgent applications. More than 36,000 webchat queries have also been responded to.

The approximate number of online applications per county under process currently in the system is set out in the table below.

These figures are correct to 16 April 2021.

There are currently approximately 2,000 paper based applications in the system. It is not possible to break these down by county. 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.

Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent)
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887. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the status of an application by a person (details supplied); if the application will be expedited; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20516/21]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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In line with Government guidance at Level 5 of the National Framework on Living with COVID-19, 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.

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.

With regard to the specific application about which the Deputy has enquired, an official from the Passport Service contacted the applicant on 16 April 2021 to provide an update on the status of the passport application.