From 1 January to 11 April the Passport Service has issued a total of 179,885 passport books and 6,598 passport cards. This represents a significant increase in applications for passport books compared to the same period last year.
The target turnaround period of ten days applies to those applications submitted in person at the Passport Offices in Dublin and Cork and through the An Post Passport Express service. All applications which were submitted in person at the Passport Offices met the guideline turnaround times. The Passport Service has processed 119,831 applications via the Passport Express service so far this year. Of these 58,436, or almost 50% of applications, have been processed in ten working days or less. Passport Express applications are currently being processed within 11/12 working days.
To respond to the anticipated increase in seasonal demand the Passport Service has recruited additional Temporary Clerical Officers who will work a total of 5,122 weeks this year. This represents an increase of approximately 15% in the number of weeks sanctioned over last year. Application processing work has been redistributed across passport offices in recent weeks and staff re-deployed from other areas of the Department as needed to respond to the increased workload. The Passport Service will continue to closely monitor the situation, including with respect to the deployment of resources, to ensure that the impact of the high volume of demand on turnaround times is minimized.
The number of applications received from outside the state for the first quarter of 2015 was 43,369 and it is 49,397 over the same period in 2016. This represents an increase of almost 14% which is in line with the broader growth in demand.
It should be noted that the ten day turnaround time for the An Post service is a target rather than a stated guarantee. I strongly recommend that citizens apply for passports at least six weeks in advance of any planned travel.
