The passport office is to almost double the number of its staff in the next couple of weeks as it seeks to process approximately 113,000 passport applications.
As international travel returns to some sense of normality, demand for new passports is set to increase dramatically.
The backlog exists mainly due to the numerous lockdowns the country has faced with the Level 5 lockdown at the start of 2021 meaning that thousands of people went months without receiving their new passport.
