The Government is advising anyone who intends to travel abroad in 2022 to apply for their passport if it’s due to expire as demand is set to hit an all-time high.
Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has said there’s a possibility that 1.7 million passport applications will be made this year.
First time passport applications are experiencing lengthy delays while Minister Coveney has said there are currently 100,000 online applications and 13,000 paper applications on hand with the Passport Service.
Several TDs and Senators have highlighted long delays for parents who are applying for a passport for their child for the first time.
Senator Garret Ahearn and his Fine Gael colleagues are due to table a motion in the Seanad this week calling up the passport office to operate seven days a week instead of five to help clear the backlog of applications.
Minister Coveney said: “There are currently 73,000 first time applications on hand with the Passport Service. Of these, 32,000 or 43% are incomplete applications.
“In these cases, the onus is on the applicants to submit required documentation to complete the application so that their passport can be issued.
“The experience of the Passport Service is that it can take weeks and sometimes months to receive the necessary documents after an applicant applies online.
“Due to the rigorous checking process in place, the processing time for first time applications is currently 40 working days.
“This compares to 10 working days for simple adult online renewals and 15 working days for complex and child online renewals.”
In response to a parliamentary question from Fianna Fáil’s Aindrias Moynihan, Minister Coveney said given the level of demand expected by the passport service this year, he is urging “anyone who intends to travel in 2022 to apply online now for their passports.
“The Passport Service is currently experiencing high demand for first time passports, particularly for children.
“I urge citizens to check the validity of their passports before booking travel and to ensure that they apply in plenty of time.
“In the case of people planning to travel this year, whose passports are already out of date or who have children who are first-time applicants, I would encourage them to apply now online.”
He said a significant number of additional staff are being assigned to the Passport Service throughout January, February and March.
By the end of March the Government aims to have around 1,000 people working in the Passport Office.
That compares with approximately 465 in the middle of last summer.
Senator Garret Ahearn said there is “huge excitement” with the country reopening and the opportunity to travel this summer.
He said he recently applied for a passport for his two year old son and when he went to the garda station to sign the consent form, gardaí told him they have been “inundated” with people looking for requests.
He said: “The next number of months are going to skyrocket.
“Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has responded to the surge in demand by increasing staff in the Passport Office by 300, from 600 to 900. While this is a 50% increase in staff, it is expected the Office will experience a threefold or even fourfold increase in applications.
“The appointment of the additional staff must happen immediately, and staffing levels need to be kept under review with the possibility of hiring even more workers if needed. We should also look at introducing a seven-day rather than a five-day roster system in the Passport Office.
“This issue must be treated as an emergency in the coming months to ensure everyone who wants a passport can get one in time so that we can support the aviation industry and travel agencies and get back to normality.”
