Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 June 2022
122. Deputy John Brady asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the measures that will be taken to address the volume of passport queries from applicants in Northern Ireland; if he intends to open a dedicated Passport Office in Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31235/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra124. Deputy John Brady asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the number of passport applications that are currently outstanding for persons in County Wicklow in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31237/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 122 and 124 together.
The Passport Service continues to see a steady, but increasing demand for passports from citizens in Northern Ireland. Out of the total number of passport applications received from January to May of this year (695,000), approximately 10% (69,000) originated in Northern Ireland.
The Passport Service is a unified service composed of three constituent offices located in Lower Mount Street and Balbriggan in Dublin and South Mall in Cork, respectively. Passport applications from all citizens - whether from anywhere in Ireland, North or South, or abroad - are distributed for processing across the three Passport Offices on the basis of the type of application rather than the place of residence of the applicant.
Over 90% of all passport applications, including first time applications, are now being made through Passport Online which is available to 97% of all applicants across the world. 87% of applicants from Northern Ireland are submitted online. The Passport Service is committed to continuing to offer a range of application channels, including an offline service for citizens who are not eligible or do not wish to use the Passport Online service.
Passport Online is the priority channel for applications as there are many efficiencies built into the system for both the applicant and the Passport Service. The Passport Online service offers Irish citizens the ability to apply online for their passport 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is a user-friendly, efficient service that consistently offers processing times up to 4 times faster than paper-based passport renewal applications.
A paper-based, mail-in service is available at over 70 post office locations in Northern Ireland. With the availability of both Passport Online and the postal application channel, very few applicants are required to travel a significant distance in order to apply for their passport.
In the relatively small number of cases where citizens need to travel urgently and do not have a valid passport, the Passport Offices in Dublin and Cork offer an Urgent Appointment service for passport renewal with a 4-day turnaround. The Dublin office also offers a 1 day turnaround which is possible due to the production capacity in that location. The Passport Service offices in Dublin and Cork have processed over 7,600 Urgent Appointments to date in 2022. These Urgent Appointment applications represents just 1% of the total 720,000 applications received by the Passport Service since January of this year.
Given the high percentage of applicants from Northern Ireland using Passport Online, I am confident that the range of service options available meets the current needs of passport applicants. Furthermore, recent service improvements allow the Passport Service to provide this essential citizen service in an efficient and effective manner. While there are no plans to open additional passport offices, the Passport Service will continue to consider ways in which to enhance customer experience for citizens.
The information requested by Deputy Brady is outlined below in tabular form. This table also breaks down the number of applications from County Wicklow which are awaiting further action from the applicant, and the number of applications from County Wicklow currently being processed by the Passport Service.
|
County |
Total number of applications in the system |
Passport Service processing |
Awaiting further action by applicant |
|
Wicklow |
2,730 |
1,735 |
995 |
