Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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It is not possible for the Passport Service to provide the historical figures requested for the number of passport applications that were incomplete or experienced delays as this is only a temporary status for the application until such time as the application is complete.

The other information requested by the Deputy is outlined below in tabular form.

Applications received by month 1 January 2018 - 31 May 2022

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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115. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the status of a passport application (details supplied) given that it has exceeded the target issue date and applicants travel date is imminent; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33220/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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With regard to the specific applications about which the Deputies have enquired, the Passport Service has provided an update on the status of the passport application to the applicant.

James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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118. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the number of passports which have been printed per county to date in 2022, in tabular form; the number of applications that remain to be approved; the position regarding staff being employed in the Passport Office; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33234/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Passport Service is already outperforming any previous year, despite the challenges that it has encountered over the past two years.

The Passport Service continues to outperform its previous busiest year, 2019, by over 20%. Over 623,000 passports have been issued to date in 2022. This is 105,000 more passports than were issued at this point of the year in 2019. In the past four weeks, the Passport Service has issued an average of 30,000 passports per week.

99% of all child and adult online renewal applications are issued within the standard turnaround time and almost half of all adults who renew their passports online will receive their new passport in the post within 2 working days.

Processing time for first time applications now takes 25 working days, down from 40 working days in March. In the space of three months, processing time for first-time applications has been reduced by almost 40%.

My Department has been proactively planning for this significant increase in demand for many months and have made an unprecedented investment in the staffing and resources necessary to meet this demand.

A major recruitment drive, in partnership with the Public Appointments Service, has been underway since 2021. In addition, the Passport Service has run its own recruitment competition for Temporary Clerical Officers (TCOs). The Department has also been working with the HSE to provide opportunities to contact tracing staff to transfer to the Passport Service. As of 20 June, these staff have begun to be assigned to the Customer Service Hub, which will further increase the number of staff answering customer queries. This recruitment effort will bring staffing numbers at the Passport Service to over 900 which represents double the number of staff with the Passport Service in June of last year.

Intensive training of new staff and upskilling of existing staff has been underway for several months to increase the resources that can process complex applications, such as first time child applications.

Over the past number of weeks the Passport Service has worked with An Garda Síochána to develop a system for verifying Garda witnesses on passport applications in cases where the Garda signature cannot be verified. This new system assists in reducing the number of applications that are delayed due to a failure to verify witness details.

I am satisfied overall that Passport Service operations are meeting the current needs of passport applicants and that recent service improvements are allowing the Passport Service to provide this essential citizen service in an efficient and effective manner.

The information requested by the Deputy is outlined below in tabular form, for online applications. It is not possible for the Passport Service to provide the requested figures in respect of paper-based applications. This table also breaks down the number of applications currently in the system that are being processed by the Passport Service, and the number that are awaiting further action by the applicant.