A Northern Ireland family who applied for an Irish passport for their one-year-old child say panic is setting ahead of their holiday after a wait of more than three months.
Marie Tapster and her husband and two children are due to fly to Majorca in two weeks and thought submitting an application for son Cillian on February 3rd would leave them with enough time.
However, more than three months later there is no sign of Cillian’s passport and Marie is frustrated at the lack of feedback from the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin.
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Marie told Belfast Live it has turned what was supposed to be an enjoyable first family holiday into an ‘unbearable’ nightmare.
“This is our first family holiday in 3 years, we have postponed it twice due to Covid-19,” Marie said.
“We have been so looking forward to the holiday and our eldest son is so excited it would be heartbreaking to have to explain to him that we couldn’t go.
“My husband is a teacher and I have recently returned to work as a radiographer following maternity leave and this holiday was something for us all to look forward to.
“We have spent thousands on a family holiday and the stress and worry that we may not get is becoming unbearable.
The Enniskillen family says their estimated issue date was 27 April, and with that now passed they have been looking for answers from the passport office.
Marie added: “We applied for Cillian’s passport at the beginning of February knowing our holiday wasn’t until the end of May.
“The stress this has put on us has made what should be an enjoyable time, frustrating.
“The most frustrating part of the process is the lack of feedback or answers given.
“You wait for hours to speak to someone and all you are told is that the passport is at the final stage.”
On Tuesday the Department for Foreign Affairs said they were experiencing difficulties with their passport service and phone lines.
Holidaymakers have been urged to check their passport expiry dates before booking holidays, particularly first time applications which take longer to process.
A spokesperson for the Department for Foreign Affairs said there was 'no backlog' in applications and that they were still being dealt with in the usual way.
"The Passport Service has issued over 400,000 passports since the beginning of this year," the spokesperson said.
"This is compared to a total of 634,000 passports issued in 2021. In four months, the Passport Service has issued over 63% of the total number of passports issued last year.
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"355,000 passports were issued in the same period in 2019.
"While the Passport Service is experiencing a very high volume of applications, this does not represent a backlog.
"Applications are all being processed in the usual way, with a continuous stream of new applications and a continuous dispatch of completed passports happening every day.
"Since March, the Passport Service has reduced the turnaround time for first-time passports from 40 working days to 30 working days.
"This turnaround time applies to fully complete and correct passport applications and begin from the date supporting documents received by the Passport Service, not the online registration date."
Belfast Live asked why some people in Northern Ireland have been waiting more than 90 days for first time applications despite claims DFA have reduced turnaround times to 30 days for first time applications.
No response to this question has yet been received by DFA.
Sinn Féin senator Niall Ó Donnghaile said the time has come for a passport office to be opened in Northern Ireland to cope with increased demand.
"For the first time statistics show that more people from the North are applying for an Irish Passport than a British one," the senator said.
"There is significant pressure on the system with a substantial backlog and prolonged delay for many applicants.
"Elected representatives are dealing with hundreds of people contacting us because they can’t reach anyone at the Passport Office either by telephone, the online chat facility or via social media.
"I appreciate staff are doing their best under unprecedented and immense pressure - government must support them and those people waiting on passports by investing in additional infrastructure and service delivery.
"Given the continuous rising demand from the North it makes absolute sense for them to open a new, dedicated office where the public can actually engage with the Passport Office directly on the issues that are effecting them.”
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