My Department is committed to protecting the rights and privacy of all individuals and complies fully with data breach reporting requirements.
The table below shows that a total of 22 passports from across the entire immigration area that were notified as lost, misplaced or sent to the incorrect address and reported to the Data Protection Commission by the Data Protection Officer of my Department, between 1 October 2019 and 1 November 2020.
|
|
No.
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|
Lost Passports
|
8
|
|
Misplaced and subsequently retrieved
|
2
|
|
Sent to incorrect address and subsequently retrieved
|
12
|
Some 36,000 online applications for registration renewal have been successfully processed since July of this year by my Department. The small number of cases in relation to renewals (which represents a sub-set of the figures set out in the table above) should be viewed in this context. Notwithstanding this, my Department always strives to rectify any errors that may occur as quickly as possible. It also complies fully with our GDPR reporting requirements. The Immigration Service engages with, and provides appropriate assistance to affected individuals and an applicant can be reimbursed the cost of a replacement passport if the Registration Office is at fault for the loss of the original.
The Registration Office is currently processing approximately 6,400 applications seeking renewal of immigration registration, with up to 800 applications being received each week. Significant demand from people seeking to renew their immigration registration accumulated during the four months that the Registration Office in Dublin was closed earlier this year. Unfortunately, due to current Covid-19 restrictions, the Registration Office in Dublin is now closed again for in-person appointments and I am conscious that this may place an extra burden on the registration system in the months ahead.
To assist in addressing this demand, the new online system for the renewal of registrations in the Dublin area, which launched in July, enables applicants to safely engage with the Registration Office without the need to attend in person at Burgh Quay. Substantial additional resources are also being provided to the Registration Office to increase its capacity to handle current demand. The system is kept under continuous review and further measures to streamline the process for the benefit of our customers are currently under consideration.
