John Brady
Ceist:337. Deputy John Brady asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the breakdown of staffing levels in the Passport Service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33608/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 28 June 2022
Ceisteanna (337)
Freagraí scríofa
Adequate staffing of the Passport Service to respond to demand is a priority for my Department and is an issue that is kept under constant review.
Over 400 staff have been added to the Passport Service since June 2021 and 120 have joined in recent weeks. Additional permanent and temporary officers are being assigned on a continuous basis to the Passport Service.
The Passport Service recently ran its own recruitment competition for Temporary Clerical Officers with a view to maintain staffing levels throughout the year to meet the demand expected in the coming months. The Department has also been working with the HSE to provide opportunities to contact tracing staff to transfer to the Passport Service. The first group of 28 of these staff were assigned to the Customer Service Hub last week, which will further increase the number of staff answering customer queries.
This recruitment drive will see staffing numbers of over 900 at the Passport Service, which is twice the number that were in place last summer.
I am confident that the additional staff that have been assigned and will continue to be recruited over the coming weeks will have a positive impact on processing times, particularly for first time passport applications.
The number of Passport Service staff by grade are outlined below in tabular form.
|
Grade |
No. of PPS staff |
|
Principal Officer |
1 |
|
Counsellor |
1 |
|
Assistant Principal |
8 |
|
First Secretary |
1 |
|
Third Secretary |
2 |
|
Higher Executive Officer |
24 |
|
Executive Officer |
84 |
|
Clerical Officer |
351 |
|
Temporary Clerical Officer |
329 |