Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 28 March 2018
99. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will provide greater resources to the Passport Office in Cork to allow for greater speed in clearing passport applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14217/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Passport Service, located in my Department, is one unified service composed of 3 constituent offices located in Mount Street, Dublin; Balbriggan, County Dublin and South Mall, Cork. The distribution of work across the 3 passport offices does not impact on members of the public in any way or limit the options available to the public in terms of passport application channels.
Occasionally, operations are reviewed and work is redistributed between these 3 offices on the basis of demand and availability of resources. Under the current distribution of application processing across the Service, all Passport Express applications are now processed in the Balbriggan office. The Cork office processes applications from Northern Ireland and Great Britain, as well as applications submitted at Ireland’s network of Embassies and Consulates worldwide. Online passport renewal applications are processed in the Mount Street office. The public offices in Mount Street and Cork also continue to accept applications from all categories of applicant, by appointment, at their public counters. Where appropriate, these offices also facilitate the issuance of emergency passports.
My Department continues to closely monitor the level of passport demand to ensure that all resources are effectively deployed. Additional measures taken by the Passport Service include the recruitment of additional staff and the use of targeted overtime. The Passport Service received sanction this year for 220 Temporary Clerical Officers to be appointed to the Passport Offices in Dublin and Cork in accordance with application volumes allocated to each office. The vast majority of these officers are already in place with the remaining expected to be fully trained and in place by the end of March at latest. Of these Temporary Clerical Officers, 40 were assigned to the Passport Office in Cork. In addition to this, 10 Clerical Officers and 1 Executive Officer have joined the Cork Passport Office’s permanent staff since the beginning of the year. Targeted overtime for was also sanctioned for all offices to increase processing capacity.
