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.