Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 23 June 2022
120. Deputy Willie O'Dea asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the number of applications for passports from counties Clare and Tipperary for each county to date in 2022, in tabular form; the number of passports issued; the number of outstanding applications for passports currently awaiting processing in each county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32950/22]
View answer129. Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the number of applications for passports for counties Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford and Waterford from each county to date in 2022, in tabular form; the number of passports issued; the number of outstanding applications for passports currently awaiting processing in each county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32949/22]
View answer130. Deputy Joe Flaherty asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the number of applications for passports to date in 2022 from counties Longford and Westmeath; the number of passports issued; and the number of outstanding applications for passports currently awaiting processing in each county in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32951/22]
View answer140. Deputy John Lahart asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the number of applications for passports for Dublin to date in 2022, in tabular form; the number of passports issued; the number of outstanding applications for passports currently awaiting processing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32952/22]
View answer147. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the number of outstanding backlog in passport applications; the number of which originate from County Monaghan; the total number of applications processed in May 2022 and the current number of staff in the Passport Office. [33096/22]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 120, 129, 130, 140 and 147 together.
The Passport Service is already outperforming any previous year, despite the challenges that it has encountered over the past two years.
The Passport Service continues to outperform its previous busiest year, 2019, by over 20%. Over 623,000 passports have been issued to date in 2022. This is 105,000 more passports than were issued at this point of the year in 2019. In the past four weeks, the Passport Service has issued an average of 30,000 passports per week.
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.
Processing time for first time applications now takes 25 working days, down from 40 working days in March. In the space of three months, processing time for first-time applications has been reduced by almost 40%.
My Department has 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.
A major recruitment drive, in partnership with the Public Appointments Service, has been underway since 2021. In addition, the Passport Service has run its own recruitment competition for Temporary Clerical Officers (TCOs). The Department has also been working with the HSE to provide opportunities to contact tracing staff to transfer to the Passport Service. As of 20 June, these staff have begun to be assigned to the Customer Service Hub, which will further increase the number of staff answering customer queries. This recruitment effort will bring staffing numbers at the Passport Service to over 900 which represents double the number of staff with the Passport Service in June of last year.
The information requested by the Deputies is outlined below in tabular form, for online applications. It is not possible for the Passport Service to provide the requested figures in respect of paper-based applications. This table also breaks down the number of applications currently in the system that are being processed by the Passport Service, and the number that are awaiting further action by the applicant.
|
County |
No. of applications received to date in 2022 |
No. of passports issued to date in 2022 |
No. of applications currently in the system |
Passport Service processing |
Awaiting further action from the applicant |
|
Carlow |
6,383 |
5,515 |
1,069 |
689 |
380 |
|
Clare |
12,158 |
10,511 |
1,973 |
1,263 |
710 |
|
Dublin |
138,399 |
123,624 |
20,715 |
13,824 |
6,891 |
|
Kilkenny |
9,941 |
8,688 |
1,506 |
981 |
525 |
|
Longford |
3,779 |
3,200 |
680 |
440 |
240 |
|
Monaghan |
6,105 |
5,203 |
1,081 |
694 |
387 |
|
Tipperary |
15,919 |
13,821 |
2,512 |
1,619 |
893 |
|
Waterford |
12,722 |
11,261 |
1,852 |
1,203 |
649 |
|
Westmeath |
9,247 |
8,107 |
1,452 |
898 |
554 |
|
Wexford |
15,362 |
13,353 |
2,444 |
1,522 |
922 |
