Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 16 February 2022
123. Deputy Mark Ward asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if his attention has been drawn to technical difficulties preventing some passport applicants from completing their applications forcing them to submit new applications and incurring the fee for a second time; and the way that these applicants can receive a refund for their first application. [8527/22]
View answerThe 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. 90% of all passport applications are received through Passport Online.
All Irish citizens, including children, can use the online system to renew their passports from anywhere in the world. Passport Online can also be accessed by first time applicants, irrespective of age in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Great Britain, Europe, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA.
The Passport Service regrets that Passport Online experienced technical issues during the week of 24 January 2022. Despite these issues, over 32,000 applications were submitted via Passport Online that week.
A scheduled system upgrade that has improved the responsiveness and efficiency of the system was completed on Friday, 28 January 2022. This upgrade has addressed the issues experienced by some customers. Since the upgrade was completed, Passport Online has been fully functional and operating smoothly.
The Passport Service ensures that customers are fully informed of any scheduled downtime or technical issues with Passport Online via its social media accounts and on the Passport Online website.
In cases where passport applicants submitted an application twice and incurred a second fee during the week of 24 January 2002, these applicants can receive a full refund for the first application by contacting the Customer Service Hub at (01) 6711633 or via Webchat on my Department's website (www.dfa.ie/passports).
