Mark Ward
Ceist:128. Deputy Mark Ward asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the plans that are in place to tackle the backlog in issuing passports. [32745/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraThursday, 23 June 2022
Ceisteanna (128, 155)
Mark Ward
Ceist:155. Deputy Mark Ward asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will consider as a matter of urgency opening a passport office in Belfast in view of the current backlog and volume of applications on the island of Ireland including an unprecedented number from the North of Ireland. [32746/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraFreagraí scríofa
I propose to take Questions Nos. 128 and 155 together.
The Passport Service is already outperforming any previous year, despite the challenges that it has encountered over the past two years.
The Passport Service continues to outperform its previous busiest year, 2019, by over 20%. Over 623,000 passports have been issued to date in 2022. This is 105,000 more passports than were issued at this point of the year in 2019. In the past four weeks, the Passport Service has issued an average of 30,000 passports per week.
99% of all child and adult online renewal applications are issued within the standard turnaround time and almost half of all adults who renew their passports online will receive their new passport in the post within 2 working days.
Processing time for first time applications now takes 25 working days, down from 40 working days in March. In the space of three months, processing time for first-time applications has been reduced by almost 40%.
My Department has been proactively planning for this significant increase in demand for many months and have made an unprecedented investment in the staffing and resources necessary to meet this demand.
A major recruitment drive, in partnership with the Public Appointments Service, has been underway since 2021. In addition, the Passport Service has run its own recruitment competition for Temporary Clerical Officers (TCOs). The Department has also been working with the HSE to provide opportunities to contact tracing staff to transfer to the Passport Service. As of 20 June, these staff have begun to be assigned to the Customer Service Hub, which will further increase the number of staff answering customer queries. This recruitment effort will bring staffing numbers at the Passport Service to over 900 which represents double the number of staff with the Passport Service in June of last year.
Intensive training of new staff and upskilling of existing staff has been underway for several months to increase the resources that can process complex applications, such as first time child applications.
Over the past number of weeks the Passport Service has worked with An Garda Síochána to develop a system for verifying Garda witnesses on passport applications in cases where the Garda signature cannot be verified. This new system assists in reducing the number of applications that are delayed due to a failure to verify witness details.
The Passport Service continues to see a steady, but increasing demand for passports from citizens 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.
87% of passport applications from Northern Ireland are submitted online. 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. Passport Service figures show that less than 1% of all applicants use the in-person Urgent Appointment Service available at the Passport Offices in Dublin and Cork.
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. 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.
Questions Nos. 129 and 130 answered with Question No. 120.