Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 19 June 2018
124. Deputy Brendan Howlin asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the amount of calls received by the passport office in Cork and Dublin compared to the amount of calls answered by the passport office in Cork and Dublin in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26684/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Passport Service has a dedicated Communication Unit to respond to queries from passport applicants. This Communication Unit handles all queries for Passport Offices in Dublin, Cork and London. This Unit can be contacted by telephone, email or by web chat. I recognize that there are individuals with pressing needs who face difficulties in contacting the Passport Service. This results in multiple attempts by the same callers to reach us by phone, email and webchat. I would like to reassure you that the Passport Service is making every effort to respond to as many customer queries as possible. In the week of 11 June the Passport Service’s Communications Unit dealt with over 9,500 queries. This included 2,300 cases via the phone. In addition, over 1,500 cases were dealt with via webchat, over 3400 via email and approximately 2,300 in person at our counters in our Dublin and Cork offices.
In recent weeks, the Passport Service has allocated additional resources to the existing Communications Unit to respond to customer queries on phones, email and webchat. Measures taken include the temporary redeployment of existing Passport Service staff and the assignment of temporary clerical officers to the communications unit. For example in recent weeks, over 25 experienced staff from various sections of the Department have joined the existing Communications Team.
I would urge all applicants to consult the website at www.dfa.ie/passport for guidance in relation to their query before attempting to contact the Customer Service team. Information for all categories of applicants is available on the website, as well as our application tracking service which will show the latest updates on the application process.
