People from Northern Ireland planning to travel abroad this summer are being urged to check if their Irish passport is valid due to high demands for applications.
First time passport applications, which are necessarily complex to process, in particular are experiencing lengthy delays.
There has already been a massive surge in applications since the Irish Government recently announced the easing of most Covid restrictions as families rush to book foreign holidays.
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The issue has been exacerbated by the fact that the Dublin Passport Office was closed to all but urgent applications for long periods during the pandemic.
Ireland's Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said numbers had gone “off the charts” in the last three months.
There were 137,000 applications to the Passport Service in January, more than 150,000 in February and over 100,000 in March.
In total, 634,000 passports were issued in 2021 compared to 936,555 in 2019 and 450,070 in 2020.
Mr Coveney has urged holidaymakers to check if their passport is valid due to high demands for applications.
Fellow politicians have said they are being inundated with requests from local constituents in a bid to expedite their passport application in time for their trip abroad.
Many parents, who are applying for a passport for their child for the first time, are also not aware of the significant time and documentation requirements, while it appears a staffing issue may also be adding to delays for people.
In recent weeks, the Passport Service has reduced the average turnaround time for first time applications from 40 working days to 35.
The current number of staff at the Passport Service is 774 but the Passport Service is running its own recruitment competition for Temporary Clerical Officers with a view to assigning additional staff and to maintain staffing levels throughout the year to meet the demand expected in the coming months.
Mr Coveney said: “I strongly urge anyone who is considering travelling overseas this year, particularly families with young children, to check the validity of their passports before booking travel and to apply for their passports online in plenty of time.
“Over 264,000 passports have been issued from 1 January to 20 March 2022, compared to 21,000 passports issued over the same period in 2021.
“The Passport Service is currently experiencing a high demand for passports.”
In addition, 45% of adult online renewal applications are processed in one working day.
Applicants are strongly advised not to book flights until they have their passport.
Sinn Féin’s leader in the Seanad has renewed calls for an Irish passport office to be opened in Northern Ireland to help with delays.
“A total of 182,000 Irish passports are waiting to be processed. This shows that a passport office in the north is much needed,” said Niall Ó Donnghaile.
“Families are losing money by missing out on holidays despite extra staff being brought in to deal with the extra applications.
“Given that the Foreign Affairs Minister has acknowledged the ‘off the charts’ applications, opening an office in the north could help alleviate some pressure from the passport office and post office workers.
“I will again be raising this campaign in the Seanad and would call on the government to engage positively, prepare and deliver for citizens.”
Minister Coveney has said the Passport Service is implementing a number of further measures that will positively impact the current turnaround times and improve customer service.
This includes actively prioritising first time applications and a new document management system which was put in place in early March.
One particular feature of the new system improves the processing time for applicants who have been asked to submit additional documents.
Once the additional documents are received, they are prioritised and where applications are complete can now be processed in three weeks.
The current passport processing times are:
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10 working days for Simple Adult online renewals
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15 working days for Complex or child online renewals
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35 working days for First Time Applications on Passport Online
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8 weeks for An Post’s mail-in “Passport Express” service
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