Passport Service to spend up to €6m on 'critical' renewal of facial recognition system

It’s believed that up to 1.7 million applications could be made to the Passport Office this year, far exceeding the peak of around 900,000 received in a single year before the pandemic. Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins Photos

The Passport Service is set to spend up to €6 million on the “critical” renewal of its facial recognition system, as it deals with a deluge of applications in the coming months.

Significant investment has been made in recruitment on the Passport Service and this additional funding will run the support and maintenance of the facial recognition technology used for up to five years.