John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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277. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade when paper passport applications through the An Post postal service will resume; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34526/21]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Passport Service scaled up operations on 4 May 2021, in line with the phased easing of restrictions set out in “COVID-19 Resilience and Recovery 2021 – The Plan Ahead”. The priority currently is to clear the Covid passport backlog and to continue to supply emergency and expanded customer services via our web chat and phone services. So far we have issued approx 130,000 passports since May 4th.

As part of the continued scaling up of Passport Services, the 1,500 Passport Express applications currently in our system will be processed from 1 July. This will be followed by a resumption of Passport Express and Northern Ireland Passport Express Services from 19 July with the same turnaround times that were in place in 2020 of six to eight weeks.

Passport Online will continue to be the priority channel given the efficiencies that are in-built into the system for both the applicant and the Passport Service. The processing of an online application is up to four times faster than the processing time of a paper application. In addition, the use of Passport Online can facilitate social distancing, given that a renewal application for an adult does not require the signature of a witness.