Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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264. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will report on the expected start and completion dates for implementation of the new passport system in the passport office; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5540/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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There is an ongoing process of reform within the Passport Service. This process has already delivered a number of transformational improvements for citizens at home and abroad, in particular, the rollout of the Passport Online service. Passport Online can now be accessed by first time applicants, both children and adults, in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Great Britain, Europe, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA. All Irish citizens, including children, can use the online system to renew their passports from anywhere in the world. In 2021, approximately 90% of all applications were made online.

The next major reform underway is the replacement of the core technology underpinning the Passport Service. The current system, the Automated Passport System or APS, was launched in 2004 and will be replaced by a more modern, integrated system. An extensive procurement process, overseen by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP), concluded in April 2021 with the award to a consortium led by Global. The Passport Issuance and Processing System (PIPS) contract was signed in September 2021 and the project officially commenced in November 2021. This complex project is currently at an early stage and officials from my Department are actively working with the vendor to outline the high level design of the new system. Extensive detailed design, testing and phased implementation is to follow over the remainder of this year and much of 2023. It is intended that the new system will be substantially operational by the end of 2023.

This will ensure the Passport Service benefits from a standard, scalable and resilient technical platform, capable of handling increased application volumes, while maintaining the high standards of security that are a hallmark of the Irish Passport. The Passport Online Service will remain in place as the fastest, easiest and safest way for citizens to apply.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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265. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the Passport Office is presently unable to issue online applicants with the necessary links to forms they must complete to progress renewals and first-time applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5541/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Passport Online service offers Irish citizens the ability to apply online for their passport 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is a user-friendly, efficient service that consistently offers processing times up to 4 times faster than paper-based passport renewal applications. Over 90% of all passport applications are received through Passport Online.

All Irish citizens, including children, can use the online system to renew their passports from anywhere in the world. Passport Online can also be accessed by first time applicants, irrespective of age in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Great Britain, Europe, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA.

The Passport Service regrets that Passport Online was experiencing some technical issues over the course of last week. During this time a small number of customers experienced difficulties with the links required to complete their online passport application. Despite this over 32,000 applications were submitted via Passport Online last week.

A scheduled system upgrade that has improved the responsiveness and efficiency of the system was completed on Friday, 28 January 2022. This upgrade has addressed the issues experienced by some customers. Since the upgrade was completed, Passport Online has been fully functional and operating smoothly.

Any customers who still require a link to complete the forms necessary to submit their application can use the following online portal to request their resubmission link -

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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266. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the number of online renewal and first-time adult and child passport applications that were issued on the projected issue date, earlier than the projected issue date, later than the projected issue date or rejected in 2021, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5542/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The information requested by the Deputy is set out in tabular form below.

There are several factors that will help to clarify the figures of passports issued before, on or after the issue-by date in 2021.

Passport Service operations were severely disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, as were many Government services. Between January 2021 and May 2021, many Passport Service staff members were redeployed to assist with the national response to Covid-19 in essential public service roles, such as assisting the Department of Social Protection in the processing of Covid-19 related benefits, providing consular assistance to Irish citizens overseas and assisting the Public Appointments Services. During this period, emergency passport services were maintained and Passport Service staff assisted citizens who required passports for a range of emergency and urgent personal, business or legal reasons or who had compelling humanitarian needs to travel. Taking account of Covid-19 protocols in place at that time, 67,000 passports were issued during that period.

At the end of the period of Level 5 restrictions and in the context of the Government’s “Covid-19 Resilience and Recovery 2021”, I advised the Government of my decision to categorise the Passport Service as an essential service and to scale up operations. Passport Service operations began scaling up on 4 May 2021. At this point, notwithstanding the excellent efforts of the Passport Service staff, a Covid related backlog of 89,000 passport applications had developed as customers continued to apply for non-urgent passports while services were disrupted. The figures in the table below show that a high number of applications were processed beyond the issue-by date. However, a significant proportion of these were received during the first four months of 2021 and could not be processed during Level 5 restrictions.

The online Passport Tracker provides applicants with an indication of how their application is progressing through the system and gives an estimated issue date based on the current average application processing time. Given that this is an indication only of the estimated issue date based on current averages, this projected issue date is not an intended guarantee of delivery on that date. This issue date relates to passport applications submitted to the Passport Service with required supporting documentation. When passport applicants to not provide all of the requisite documentation to the Passport Service, it takes much longer to process the application and issue a passport. Passport Service figures consistently show that 45% of applications at a point in time are incomplete and the onus is on the applicant to submit the required documents to the Service. While the Passport Service makes every effort to contact applicants in such circumstances, their experience is that many applicants take weeks and sometimes months to send in the necessary documents. Passport applications that are incomplete cannot be processed by the Passport Service. The 41,434 applications cancelled in 2021 are primarily applications where no documentation was submitted within the six month of the application being made.