![]() "There absolutely is no way to get in touch with them to say: 'You already have those documents' and I am due to travel next month. She added she has "tried incessantly to contact" the Passport Office but failed. I sent in all of the originals to the Passport Office," Ms Egan-Langley said. She said she received a request for documentation after she had already submitted it, including both her and her husband's passports. However, the remaining one - a first time child passport application - has not been processed. "Of these, almost 13,000 or 43% are incomplete applications that require additional documentation," the minister added.īarrister Miranda Egan-Langley applied for passports for three of her children in November - two were passport renewals and have been received. "There are currently 30,000 first time child applications on hand with the Passport Service. "Due to the intensive analysis underpinning first time online passport applications, the processing time is 40 working days. "These first time applications are necessarily complex to process, since they are essentially applications for Irish citizenship," Mr Coveney said. But when they do I am happy to represent them."Īccording to Minister Coveney’s response "the passport service is currently experiencing high demand for first time passports, particularly for children". People should not have to go to a public representative. ![]() I don’t know why the system is inefficient. Limerick TD Willie O'Dea commented: "I'm inundated with people contacting me about passports in my constituency office. Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy said: "After housing, passports - and people contacting us about them - is one of the biggest issues we are dealing with at the moment." These are taking months and as parents' passports are put in as part of the application there have been parents who have missed trips abroad because their passport was stuck in the application process with their child's passport application," said Fianna Fáil TD Dara Calleary. "The biggest problem is first time passports - especially for children. Some TDs said passport applications are one of the biggest issues they are contacted about after housing. The figures in Mr Coveney's response show, at present, it takes 10 working days for a simple online renewal 15 working days for a complex or child online renewal 40 working days for first time applicants on passport online and eight weeks for An Post's mail-in "Passport Express" service. "Despite the disruptions related to the pandemic throughout last year, the Passport Service issued over 634,000 passports in 2021 and 45% of simple adult renewals issued within one business day," Mr Coveney said. "There are currently 100,000 online applications and 13,000 paper applications on hand with the Passport Service," Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney stated in a response to a number of written parliamentary questions by other TDs. It is expected as many as 1.7 million applications will be made in 2022. It comes as the Department of Foreign Affairs said an "elected representative temporary helpline" for TDs "does not fast track the processing of an application".Īs tens of thousands of people wait for their passports to be processed, a number of TDs said they are "inundated" with constituents contacting them about passports.įigures show 113,000 people are waiting for passports.Ħ34,000 passports were issued in 2021 compared to 936,555 in 2019 and 450,070 in 2020. Frustrated passport applicants are turning to their local TDs in an attempt to get their travel documentation quicker.
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