Coveney says passport backlog can be cleared ‘within weeks’

Government TDs have welcomed a move by the Cabinet to categorise passport production as an essential service amid a lengthy backlog of applications.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has said that he expects the backlog of passport applications, estimated to be 89,000, can be cleared within a number of weeks.

Passport production has been deemed an essential service following a Cabinet meeting on Thursday.

Mr Coveney brought a memo asking the Cabinet to note that the passport service has continued operating, and that since March 2020 office staff have been involved in processing 428,000 passport applications. Some 45,000 of those have been this year, 3,500 of which have been for emergency purposes.

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Mr Coveney told the Cabinet that he is to recategorise passport services as an essential service, meaning a substantial backlog will be cleared more efficiently.

The backlog of 89,000 includes some 44,000 domestic applications and 45,000 applications from outside the State, a significant number of which are Brexit-related.

The Minister told Cabinet that he intends to scale up production beyond the 45,000 passports issued already this year in order to to meet current and future demand.

Mr Coveney also told RTÉ Radio 1’s Morning Ireland on Thursday that hundreds of thousands of passports had been processed during the pandemic but because of health and safety recommendations on maintaining distance, only a third of staff had been able to work “on the floor” processing passport applications.

He said that when the Passport Office was “fully up and running” it could process 120,000 applications in a month, so he expected the backlog could be cleared “within weeks”.

Mr Coveney acknowledged that passports were required for many purposes other than travel, and as such the Passport Office was an essential service.

Absolute limbo

The Dáil last week heard criticisms from a Government TD about the backlog. Fine Gael TD Neale Richmond said the Passport Office had been effectively closed. He said the passport service may be award-winning "but we don't have a service", only a bare-minimum facility operating at a fraction of what was necessary.

Mr Richmond said some people were stuck in "absolute limbo", and "regardless of Level 5 restrictions it was not good enough".

Speaking after the Cabinet meeting, the Dublin Rathdown TD said: “This is a very welcome if overdue move. A passport is for much more than travel, and the most important document for so many people in terms of identification.

“I have been inundated with calls and emails from people whose passport is long expired and their renewal has been stuck in the system for months.

“This has been particularly difficult for Irish citizens abroad and those accessing the foreign births register. It is vital that this backlog is cleared quickly and the passport office remains open.”