We are currently in the busy season for passports, as citizens prepare for their upcoming summer travel plans. Thanks to the staffing and operational plans implemented for 2023, the Passport Service is successfully responding to the current high demand, and has issued almost 350,000 passports to date this year. All turnaround times are at their target level and there are no backlogs. The Customer Service Hub is responding to over 3,000 queries per day.
Staffing remains a priority and recruitment will continue in the coming months. The Department has run 16 recruitment and promotion competitions since 2021 to fill vacancies in the Passport Service and works closely with the Public Appointments Service to secure new staff. The Department also took the unprecedented step to retain temporary staff through contract extensions to ensure expertise is retained, and staffing levels are maintained.
The Passport Service and the Department’s Human Resources Unit have been actively working to assign new staff to the Passport Service since the start of the year. Approximately, 100 Temporary Clerical Officers have been assigned to the Passport Service since January 2023. In addition to this, over 90 permanent staff have also been assigned to the Passport Service since the beginning of the year.
The Department recently concluded a competition for additional Temporary Clerical Officers and will start to assign successful officers from that competition in early May.
Additional office space on the Balbriggan campus provides over 200 additional workstations to accommodate the increase in staff numbers. This brings the total capacity of the Balbriggan campus to 500 workstations.
I am confident that the staffing and accommodation measures implemented, along with other improvements, will continue to have a positive impact on passport processing times for 2023.
