Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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397. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the status of a passport application by a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10877/22]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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400. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if a passport application can be processed for a person (details supplied) in County Mayo in view of the fact this person is a minor and has to travel with other family members for an important life event in their family [10926/22]

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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407. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if a passport application by a person (details supplied) will be reviewed; if this case which was lodged with his Department in November 2021 will be expedited; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11175/22]

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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416. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if a passport application by a person (details supplied) will be expedited; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11337/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 397, 400, 407 and 416 together.

With regard to the specific applications about which the Deputies have enquired, the Passport Service has issued passports to the applicants.

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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399. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if the case of a passport application by a person (details supplied) will be reviewed; if the case will be escalated and expedited given the time lost due to an error made by the passport office; the status of the case; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10925/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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With regard to the specific application about which the Deputy has enquired, the Passport Service has contacted the applicant's parent directly to provide an update on the application. The Passport Service will make every effort to ensure that additional time is not lost due to the technical issue which occurred at the outset of this application process.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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402. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he has considered contacting the HSE to advertise vacancies in passport offices to those with contracts ending at vaccination, testing and tracing centres given the large backlog in passport applications and the winding down of certain Covid-19 response measures. [10986/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department has been pro-actively planning to ensure the necessary resources are in place to meet the current and expected level of demand for passports in 2022 and is making an unprecedented investment in the Passport Service in terms of additional staff and improvements to the passport processing and customer service systems.

My Department is working intensively, in partnership with the Public Appointments Service, to recruit temporary and permanent staff for the Passport Service. This recruitment drive has been underway for several months. Since June of 2021, over 300 members of staff at all grades have been assigned to the Passport Service. Additional staff are being assigned on a weekly basis with a goal of reaching staff numbers of 900 by the end of March. This represents a doubling of staff numbers over the course of 9 months.

Any individual interested in applying is welcome to do so via the current open competition to recruit Temporary Clerical Officers or other open recruitment competitions administered by the Public Appointments Service. Further information is available on the Public Appointments Service website: www.publicjobs.ie.