New system introduced to speed up passport applications
Simon Coveney said the passport service was seeing record demand, beating 2019 which had been the busiest year by almost 20%. Picture: Julien Behal
A new system of Garda certification has been introduced in a bid to issue passports as quickly as possible amid record applications.
Simon Coveney, the foreign affairs minister, has told party colleagues that the number of workers in the customer service hub of the passport office will also increase from 60 to 80 next week and 140 in two weeks' time.
Last week, the Passport Service issued an average of 7,000 passports a day. This is a 40% increase in the number of passports being issued on a daily basis in recent weeks.
In an email sent to members of the Fine Gael parliamentary party, Mr Coveney said a new agreement was struck yesterday with As Garda Síochána on witnessing first-time child applications.
Around 50 applications a day are being stalled, with those applying being asked to get new consent forms because officials in the passport office are unable to contact the witnessing garda around the country.
From now on, a daily list will be transmitted between the passport office and Garda management of the cases where contact hasn’t been made and the contact will then be initiated on the Garda side, meaning the application won’t be cancelled.
It was reported last week that opposition politicians and government TDs were getting 50-60 passport delay queries each week, resulting in a cap being placed on how many cases they could raise with the passport office weekly.
Mr Coveney said the passport service was seeing record demand, beating 2019 which had been the busiest year by almost 20%.
A total of 560,000 passports have been issued already this year, which is 90,000 more passports than were issued at this point in 2019.
Around 80% of applications received by the passport service are renewals, with 99% of these issued within the standard turnaround time. Almost half of all adults who renew their passports online will receive their new passport in the post within two working days.
