Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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24.To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the number of staff in the passport service, by grade, role, location and cost, in 2024, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31522/24]

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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25.To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the cost of operating each site in use by the passport service in 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31523/24]

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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26.To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the cost of increasing the number of urgent passport appointments from 2019 to 2023, and to date in 2024, by type, by location and by revenue raised, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31524/24]

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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30.To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the cost of increasing staffing levels in the passport service by increments of ten, 25, 50 and 100, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31540/24]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 24 to 26, inclusive, and 30 together.

The Passport Service has issued over 700,000 passports to date this year. Virtually all complete passport applications are being processed within or before advertised turnaround times with the majority of adult online renewal applications issuing within two working days. There are currently no backlogs and 95% of applicants apply through Passport Online.

Adequate staffing of the Passport Service to respond to demand continues to be a priority for the Department in 2024 and is an issue that is kept under constant review.

With regard to the Deputy's question relating to increasing staffing levels in the passport service by increments of 10, 25, 50 and 100, the costs are outlined in Table 1 below. These costs are based on the salary costs associated with Clerical Officers, Executive Officers and Higher Executive Officers on the mid-point of the scale and include the employer's PRSI contribution costs. The management structure outlined in the table correlates to the ratio of managers to staff typical in the Passport Service. These costs do not include additional costs that would be incurred by an increase in staff including accommodation, utilities and equipment costs.

Table 1 – Estimated Salary & PRSI Costs of Additional Staff

The number of staff in the Passport Service, by grade and location as of July 2024 is set out in Table 2 below. The vast majority of TCOs, COs, EOs and HEOs are involved in customer service, passport documentation, entitlement checking and passport production and dispatch roles. Salary costs for the Passport Service are included in Table 4 below.

The Assistant Principal (AP) and PO/Counsellor roles are outlined in Table 3 below.

The salary costs of Passport Service staff by location are set out in Table 4 below.

Table 2 – Number of Passport Service Staff by Grade & Location (as of 30 June 2024)

Table 3 –Principal Officer (PO)/Counsellor and Assistant Principal (AP)/First Secretary (FS) Roles in Passport Service

Table 4 – Passport Service Salary Costs by Site 1 January – 30 June 2024

The overall cost of operating the Passport Service to date in 2024 is €7.6 million. This figure does not include any allocation of indirect costs incurred by central services e.g. ICT, Finance, Corporate services, etc. Furthermore, these costs do not include rent and building service charges which are the responsibility of the Office of Public Works.

The Passport Service offers Urgent Appointments for applicants who need to renew their passport urgently in time for travel. The Passport Offices in Dublin and Cork operate a four-day Urgent Appointment Service for renewal applicants. A five day appointment service is also available in our Consular office in London. The number of appointments available has increased this year with 220 one-day appointments now available each week in Dublin and 544 four-day appointments available between Dublin and Cork.

The Passport Service estimates that each additional 25 appointments made available require the equivalent of 5 Clerical Officers to administer the customer service, documentation, entitlement checking and approval, production and collection of the passports applied for. Based on the figures outlined in Table 1 above the annual salary cost of providing 25 additional appointments per week is €208,548. These costs do not include additional costs that would be incurred by an increase in staff including accommodation, utilities and equipment costs. Furthermore, these costs do not include the salary costs of the management structure involved including Executive Officer, Higher Executive Officer and Assistant Principal salary costs.

The number of urgent appointments booked by citizens to renew their passport at the Passport Service public counters in Dublin, Cork and London from 2021 to date are outlined below in Table 5. It should be noted that the current Urgent Appointment Service was established in October 2021 in Dublin and Cork and April 2022 in London following the lifting of Covid-related travel restrictions.

Table 5 – Number of Urgent Appointments Booked 2021-to date and revenue generated