The Passport Service has issued 460,000 passports to date this year and is on track to have issued half a million passports by the end of this month.
Virtually all complete passport applications are being processed within advertised turnaround times.All passport applications require supporting documentation to some degree, whether it is a photo uploaded online for an adult's renewal application, or documents necessary to validate the identity and entitlement to Irish citizenship of a first time applicant. In the cases of children's applications, witnessed identity and consent forms are required to ensure that guardians have consented to the issuance of a passport for the child.In cases where insufficient or incorrect documents are received by the Passport Service, every effort is made to let the applicant know as soon as possible. Applications enter a queue and are checked in order of date received.The Passport Service has had a system whereby applications do not go to the back of the queue following a request for further documents. When the Passport Service receives the required additional documentation from the applicant, the application is prioritised for checking.Online applications for which additional photos are requested are processed within a maximum of 10 working days of the receipt of the new photo. All other requests for further documents are processed within 15 working days of receipt of the additional documents, for both paper and online application types.
The Passport Service has public education materials, including video tutorials on taking a passport photo and detailed instructions on the application process, available online: www.ireland.ie/en/dfa/passports/how-to-apply-for-a-passport. These materials are regularly communicated to citizens via our social media channels.Additionally, should assistance be required with an application, our Customer Service agents are available through phone and webchat services from Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. They can be contacted at +353 1 671 1633, or via the WebChat service: www.ireland.ie/en/dfa/passports/contact-us/#webchat.The public offices of the Passport Service in Dublin 2 and in Cork operate a four-day Urgent Appointment service for renewal applicants. The Dublin office also offers a one-day Urgent Appointment service.Renewal applicants who have already submitted a passport application either through Passport Online or Post Passport can book an urgent appointment and visit the Passport Office to apply for a passport. Once a passport has been issued, their original application will be cancelled and the fee will be refunded.Further information on the Urgent Appointment service for renewal applicants is available at www.ireland.ie/en/dfa/passports/urgent-appointment/.
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. Passport Online is now available to 99.9% of all applicants across the world.
I would ask the Deputy to encourage his constituents to apply online well in advance of their travel date for the quickest, cheapest and most efficient service.
