Irish holidaymakers have been warned that a massive backlog in the passport office for those waiting on first-time passport applications could cause some to miss their flights.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has been urged to provide more accurate information on expected waiting times as people fear they will be forced to cancel trips.
A technical issue with the system in recent weeks added to the problem, causing difficulty in getting passports to first-time applicants.
Social Democrat co-leader Catherine Murphy said she has never received such volumes of passport queries from the public.
She said: "I can't recall anything like the volume of passport inquiries that I'm getting - and I'm presuming that it's the same with every TD. So at this stage, there is a degree of chaos that people are feeling.
"I think the Department have to come out and be very honest with people about the length of time they're going to be waiting. Or else they've got to augment the number of people who are working in the passport office to try and bring down waiting times."
Following the lifting of Covid restrictions, the passport office received over 137,000 new applications, the highest volume ever received.
There are currently 160,000 passport applications in the system, of which 20,000 are first time applications from within the State.
Travellers have been advised that the current processing time for a first-time application is up to 40 working days, but Deputy Murphy said this timeframe is longer in reality.
She said: "The automatic passports, where somebody is looking to renew and doing it online, that's working well.
"And in fact, it's one of the better initiatives over the last few years that the passport office has done.
"But there isn't a day goes by that we don't get multiple requests in relation to information on passports now. It is one of the dominant issues that's cropping up for us.
"It's mainly for people who are applying for a first-time passport or a passport for a child.
"These take 40 days, but what is not clear is that they take 40 days from the time it's checked, and they may well be with the Department a significant length of time before it's checked.
"So the Department need to give accurate information out to people because they're making decisions on should they cancel or postpone trips and things like that if there isn't a chance of getting a passport."
In response to this Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said: “The Passport Service regrets that the passport tracker recently experienced technical issues which resulted in the tracker not correctly updating a small number of applications.
“The Passport Service became aware of the issue earlier this month and initiated an investigation at that point. This issue has been identified and is now fixed.
“While it has not been possible to immediately update all affected applications on the tracker, this will happen automatically when these applications reach the next stage of the process.
“It is rare for the passport tracker to experience this kind of technical issue. The Passport Service regrets any inconvenience caused to applicants who have been affected.”
