Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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208. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if the Passport Office is operating at weekends due to seasonal high demand; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27349/25]

Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
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226. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if there are plans in place to recruit more staff for the Passport Office in Balbriggan to accommodate the higher need for passports in the summer months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27354/25]

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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253. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the current staffing levels in the Passport Office; his targets for recruitment; and the additional time it may take to process a first time application in cases where additional documentation has been sought. [27330/25]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 208, 226 and 253 together.

The Passport Service is successfully meeting high demand for passports. So far in 2025, the Passport Service has issued over 440,000 passports.

My Department engages in comprehensive workforce planning each year, based on forecasted passport demand. Staffing requirements for the upcoming year are formally approved by the Department’s Management Board on an annual basis. As a result of this proactive approach, the Passport Service is well-positioned to meet forecasted demand for the remainder of the year.

Currently, the Passport Service employs a total of 858 staff, which represents 98% of the approved staffing target.

To effectively address the increased demand typically experienced during the busy spring and summer period, 133 TCOs have been assigned to the Passport Service since November 2024, ensuring adequate staffing levels. The need to recruit additional staff is kept under review throughout the year, and requests to Public Appointments Services can be made as necessary. The Passport Service continuously monitors passport application volumes and, where necessary, offers voluntary overtime to staff to ensure the consistent delivery of service standards to our citizens.

Where additional documentation has been sought for a first time application, the Passport Service has had a system in place since 2022 whereby applications do not go to the back of the queue following a request for further documents. When the Passport Service receives the required additional documentation from the applicant, the application is prioritised for checking.

Online applications for which additional photos are requested, are processed within a maximum of 10 working days upon the receipt of the new photo. All other requests for further documents are processed within 15 working days of receipt of the additional documents, for both paper and online application types.

The Passport Service has public education materials, including video tutorials on taking a passport photo and detailed instructions on the application process, available on my Department’s website.

As always, I ask Deputies to encourage their constituents to apply for their passports through Passport Online, as the quickest, easiest and most cost-effective way to apply for a passport. The Passport Online service allows citizens to apply online for their passport 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Passport Online is available to 99.9% of all applicants globally. As a matter of best practice, applicants should always check the validity of their passport before booking travel.