Maurice Quinlivan
Ceist:266. Deputy Maurice Quinlivan asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will address a matter regarding the case of a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36432/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraDáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 July 2021
266. Deputy Maurice Quinlivan asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will address a matter regarding the case of a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36432/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Passport Service has been in direct contact with the person referred to in the Deputy's question.
The Passport Service commenced the scaling up of operations on 4 May 2021 in line with the phased easing of restrictions set out in “COVID-19 Resilience and Recovery 2021 – The Plan Ahead”.
The Service has been focused since then on four priority areas:
- Clearing the COVID-19 backlog of 89,000 passport applications.
- Processing all adult renewal applications (including new applications) within 10 working days.
- Processing urgent and emergency applications.
- Providing of customer services through phone and WebChat.
The Passport Service has now commenced the processing of all other applications received since 4 May.
First-time applications require additional security measures including robust identity verification and entitlement checking and, as a result, take longer to process than straight forward renewal applications.