Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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143. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will establish a passport office in Belfast; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23618/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Passport Service is a unified service composed of three constituent offices located in Lower Mount Street and Balbriggan in Dublin and South Mall in Cork, respectively. Passport applications from all citizens - whether at home or abroad - are distributed for processing across the three Passport Offices, on the basis of the type of application rather than county or country of residence of the applicant.

Over 90% of all passport applications, including first time applications, are now being made through Passport Online. The Passport Service is committed to continuing to offer a range of application channels, including an offline service for citizens who are not eligible or do not wish to use the Passport Online service.

Passport Online is the priority channel for applications as there are many efficiencies built into the system for both the applicant and the Passport Service. 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.

The paper-based, mail-in "Passport Express" service is available to citizens at almost 1,000 An Post post offices and at over 70 post office locations in Northern Ireland. With the availability of both Passport Online and Passport Express very few applicants are required to travel a significant distance in order to apply for their passport.

In the relatively small number of cases where citizens need to travel urgently and do not have a valid passport, the Passport Offices in Dublin and Cork offer an Urgent Appointment service for passport renewal with a 1 or 4-day turnaround. The Passport Service offices in Dublin and Cork have processed almost 5,000 Urgent Appointments to date in 2022. These Urgent Appointment applications represents just 0.9% of the total 540,000 applications received by the Passport Service since January of this year.

I am satisfied overall that the range of service options available meets the current needs of passport applicants and that recent service improvements allow the Passport Service to provide this essential citizen service in an efficient and effective manner. While there are no plans to open additional passport offices, the Passport Service will continue to consider ways in which to enhance customer experience for citizens.

Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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144. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the number of applications for passports from counties Kildare, Laois and Offaly, respectively, that are currently outstanding; the planning that is being carried out to ensure that there is no repeat of the delays experienced in 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23619/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Passport Service is proactively managing the current demand for passports and has put in place resources and structures to address the estimated significant increase in demand for passports in 2022 in this essential citizen service.

The Passport Service has recently reduced the turnaround time for first time applications from 40 working days to 30 working days. This is a direct result of the staffing and resources the Department has invested in the Passport Service.

In addition, 45% of adult renewal online applications are issued within one working day of receipt.

While there is a very high volume of applications in the Passport Service system, this does not represent a backlog. These applications are all being processed in the usual way, with a continuous stream of new applications and a continuous dispatch of completed passports happening every day.

Figures show that of the total number of applications in the system, 61% are fully complete and are being processed by the Passport Service. The other 39% of applications in the system are incomplete, which means the Passport Service is waiting for the applicant to submit the necessary documentation required. 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.

The Passport Service is taking a number steps to deal with increased demand on its services:

- The Passport Service has a comprehensive plan to ensure that adequate staff, accommodation and technology supports are in place to meet expected demand for passports in 2022.

- A major recruitment drive has been underway over the past several months, which has seen the number of Passport Service staff increase by over 300 since June 2021.

- The Passport Service is currently running its own recruitment competition for Temporary Clerical Officers. This recruitment effort will bring staffing numbers to over 900, which represents a doubling of staff compared to June 2021.

- Intensive training of new staff and upskilling of existing staff is underway to increase the resources that can process complex applications, such as first time child applications.

- The Passport Service is prioritising first time applications and directing increased resources to processing these complex applications with a view to reducing the current turnaround time. Passport Service staff are working targeted overtime in this regard.

- The Urgent Appointment Service is available for customers who wish to renew their passport at short notice. Customers availing of this service can renew their passport within 1 or 4 days in Dublin, within 4 days in Cork and within 5 days in London.

- In February, the Passport Service increased the number of appointments at its public offices by 100%, providing an extra 170 Urgent Appointments per week.

- A new document management system was put in place at the beginning of March. This aims to improve the processing speed in the Passport Service offices, and subsequent turnaround times for the applicant. One particular feature of the new system improves the processing time for applicants who have been asked to submit additional documents. Once the additional documents are received, they are being prioritised and complete applications can then be processed in 3 weeks. This significantly reduces the processing time, particularly for first time applicants.

- Public information media campaigns reminding citizens to check and renew their passports will continue during this busy year.

- There is an updated Department of Foreign Affairs website, which includes a new passport service section where applicants can easily find out what additional documents are required for their type of application.

- The Passport Service is also working on public education materials, including video tutorials, with a view to assisting applicants to complete their application correctly. These videos will be shared on social media and will include instructions on submitting consent forms for child applications properly.

I am confident that the measures that have been implemented will help to reduce passport turnaround times in the course of 2022, particularly for first time applications, and will assist the Passport Service in meeting the high demand forecast for this year.

I strongly urge anyone who is considering travelling overseas this year, particularly families with young children, to check the validity of their passports before booking travel and to apply for their passports online in plenty of time.

The information requested by the Deputy is outlined as follows in tabular form.

The table also breaks down the number of applications from each county that are currently being processed by the Passport Service and the number of applications from each county that require further action from the applicant, such as the submission of additional documentation.