Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 31 May 2022
351. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will consider putting outreach clinics in place in each county to facilitate first-time passport applications, thereby minimising mistakes and accelerating turnaround times ahead of the summer holiday season; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27970/22]
View answerOver half a million passports have been issued so far this year. Last year, 634,000 passports were issued in the whole year. In less than five months, the Passport Service has issued over 80% of the total number of passports that were issued in the whole of last year.
The Passport Service is already out-performing any previous year, despite the challenges that it has encountered over the past two years. In 2019, which was the busiest year for passports pre-Covid, the Passport Service had issued 445,000 passports by the third week of May. In the same time period this year, over 520,000 passports have been issued.
99% of all child and adult online renewal applications are issued within the standard turnaround time and almost half of all adults who renew their passports online will receive their new passport in the post within 2 working days. This compares very favourably with passport services internationally.
Since March, processing times for first time applications have already been reduced by 25% and applications now take 30 working days rather than 40 days. From Monday, 6 June, it is hoped that, based on current trends, this processing time will decrease yet again to 25 working days for first time applications. That means that, in the space of three months, processing time for first-time applications will have been reduced by almost 40% as a direct result of the substantial level of investment that the Department has made in the Passport Service.
The Passport Service have been proactively planning for this significant increase in demand for many months and have made an unprecedented investment in the staffing and resources necessary to meet this demand.
The Passport Service is currently experiencing high demand for first time passports, particularly for children. First time passport applications take longer to process than renewal applications and there are a number of reasons for this. First time applications are necessarily complex to process, since, in many cases, they are applications for Irish citizenship. The Passport Service must validate the identity of the applicant and take measures to confirm the applicant’s entitlement to Irish citizenship. It is the statutory responsibility of the Passport Service to protect the integrity of the Irish passport. Accordingly, a rigorous analysis process is in place to verify the identity and citizenship status of first time applicants.
In the case of first time passport applications for children, the consent of guardians must also be thoroughly validated. Due to the intensive analysis and extra measures undertaken by highly trained and experienced staff, first time applications take 30 working days to process.
The Passport Service makes every effort to provide clear and comprehensive instructions for applicants, using plain English. In 2019, the Passport Service won the National Adult Literary Agency (NALA) award for Plain English for the Passport Online Renewal service.
There are several resources currently available to applicants and parents of first-time applicants in order to ensure that their application is submitted correctly.
The Passport Service encourages applicants to check the requirements for their type of application carefully on my Department's website. The recently updated website includes a new Passport Service section where applicants can easily find out what additional documents are required for their type of application.
The Passport Service has also released public education materials in the form of video tutorials with a view to assisting applicants to complete their application correctly. These videos are available on the Department's website and Youtube page and are being shared on social media. They include instructions on submitting photos and consent forms for child applications correctly. The videos can be found here:
www.dfa.ie/passports/photo-guidelines/
www.dfa.ie/passports/consent-for-children/
The Passport Service Customer Service Hub is available to respond to customer queries by phone and webchat. The Customer Service Hub handled over 100,000 queries to date this year and is currently handling over 6,000 customer contacts each week. During times of high demand, there can be delays in getting through to a service agent due to the high volumes of enquiries. The Passport Service webchat is also operational and customers should refresh the page if the icon is grey. A webchat operator is available when the icon is green.
The Customer Service Hub will be the initial priority for allocation of new staff from the recent Temporary Clerical Officer competition ran by the Passport Service. The first group of officers from this competition started on Monday, 23 May. Officers will continue to be assigned over the coming weeks with the aim of increasing staff at the Passport Service to over 900. This represents a doubling of staff numbers since June 2021.
The Passport Service is currently experiencing unprecedented demand for passports. For resource and other operational reasons it would not be feasible to open outreach clinics in each county. However, my Department and the Passport Service will continue to consider ways in which to enhance the customer experience for citizens, particularly through the Passport Reform programme which is ongoing.
