Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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120. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade when passports will issue to siblings in County Galway (details supplied); the reason for the delay in issuing said passports; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21001/24]

Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party)
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125. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if a passport application by a person (details supplied) will be reviewed and expedited; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21087/24]

Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party)
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126. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if a passport application by a person (details supplied) will be reviewed and expedited; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21088/24]

Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party)
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127. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if a passport application by a person (details supplied) will be reviewed and expedited; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21089/24]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 120, 125, 126 and 127 together.

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

Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party)
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123. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if a passport application by a person (details supplied) will be reviewed and expedited; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21085/24]

Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party)
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124. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if a passport application by a person (details supplied) will be reviewed and expedited; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21086/24]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 121, 123 and 124 together.

With regard to the specific applications about which the Deputies have enquired, the Passport Service has reviewed the applications, taken action as appropriate and contacted the applicant directly in relation to the application.

Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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122. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the measures being undertaken by his Department to ensure there is sufficient staffing numbers in passport services, in order that the current processing times for passport applications are maintained, in view that a spike in volume of passport applications received by passport services often occurs in the lead up to, and during, the summer months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21065/24]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Passport Service has issued 450,000 passports to date this year and is on track to have issued half a million passports by the end of this month.

Virtually all complete passport applications are being processed within advertised turnaround times.

The Passport Service is well-staffed and is in an excellent position to deliver the demand forecast for the rest of this year. Ensuring that we have enough staff to respond to demand is a priority for my Department and is kept under constant review.

The Passport Service assigned 40 Temporary Clerical Officers to its offices in Balbriggan and Dublin 2 in April and there are plans to assign an additional 6 Temporary Clerical Officers to its offices in Cork and Dublin 2 in May. In addition, processes are underway to fill 10 permanent roles. The current total number of staff with the Passport Service is 830.

The Passport Service continually reviews demand and offers overtime, on a voluntary basis, to staff when necessary to meet demand, avoid delays and prevent backlogs. Overtime is currently being offered to Passport Service staff as demand is high at the moment.

My Department recently ran a multimedia campaign reminding passport holders to apply for their passports on time and online. The successful campaign focused on the benefits of applying online and encouraged citizens to check their passports in advance of booking foreign travel in 2024. The campaign increased the number of applications received in the early part of this year, which will help enormously in easing demand during the busy summer period.

The Passport Service is successfully meeting the current high demand for passports and expects to issue half a million passports by the end of this month. This is a very high level of service delivery in the first five months of the year.

The Passport Service continues to review demand and implement additional mitigation measures such as overtime when necessary.

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. Passport Online is now available to 99.9% of all applicants across the world.

I would ask the Deputy to encourage his constituents to apply online for the quickest, cheapest and most efficient service.