Danny Healy-Rae warns of children's passport delays and backlog
Danny Healy-Rae raised concerns about major delays in issuing first-time and renewal passports, emphasising problems with children's applications and the parents' consent process. He called for the application process to be reviewed and streamlined to prevent last-minute refusals and travel disruption.
Backlog and staffing response
The deputy highlighted a large backlog of passport applications, citing figures of 113,000 and a later verbal reference to 111,000,000. The minister and the passport service responded that they expect a surge in applications as travel resumes and described a major recruitment drive and other measures to increase processing capacity.
Children's passports and incomplete applications
The deputy emphasised that over 40% of children's passport applications are returned as incomplete. The minister stated that approximately 40% of first-time child applications lack required documentation and that 77% of incomplete child applications involve parents who applied online but did not submit supporting documents such as witness consent forms or identity documents.
Process shortcomings and timing of requests
Danny Healy-Rae argued that missing information is often requested too close to planned travel dates and urged that applications be checked at submission so applicants can be asked for missing documents immediately. He said the parents' consent form and the handling of child applications need streamlining to reduce delays.
Individual cases and renewal rules
The deputy raised an example of a man whose renewal was treated as a new application after an 11-year gap, questioning why prior passport history did not prevent reclassification. He asked the minister to address this treatment of renewals and the perceived inconsistency.
Measures the passport service described
The minister outlined measures being implemented: a staffing increase to about 777 by the end of January (a 70% rise since June), continued recruitment through February and March, an operational new passport office in Swords with capacity for 140 staff, intensive staff training, a revised document management process to reduce turnaround when extra documents are needed, and a customer service team of over 60 staff with plans for expansion.
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I am asking if your attention has been drawn to a series of issues in relation to the delays of the issuing of first time and renewal passports and if like the Parents Consent Forum needs simplified. as this is one of the biggest issues. Children's passports, over 40 per cent of them are sent back as not being complete applications. Thank you, Deputy. I suspect there will be a lot of talk around passports in the weeks ahead, as more and more people choose to travel again. Many, of course, haven't even thought about travel for the last number of years, and so we do expect a significant increase in passport applications, and there are questions coming that will allow me to address what we're doing in response to that, which is a dramatic increase in staff numbers in the passport office. The passport service operations were severely disrupted, as you know, by the COVID pandemic throughout 2020 and 2021, as were many government services. Despite necessary public health restrictions, the passport service maintained operations with staff working on site throughout the pandemic. The passport service has put in place several measures to meet demand anticipated this year, including the assignment of additional permanent and temporary officers on a continuous basis to the passport office. My department has conducted a major recruitment drive in recent months, and I expect that by the end of January, staffing numbers will be at approximately 777. This is a 70% increase on June of last year. Additional staff will continue to be assigned to the passport office throughout February and March. The new passport office in Swords is now operational and can accommodate 140 staff. Secondly, the passport service is engaged in intensive training for staff to ensure that they have adequate resources to process complex applications. The passport service is continually looking at ways to improve processing times. A particular improvement that is currently being rolled out and will be of interest to the deputy is a change in the document management process that reduces the turnaround time when additional documents are needed to be submitted by the applicant. With regard to the simplification of the process, the passport service continually works to streamline the application process. Comprehensive information is available on all aspects of the application process, at my department's website, and the passport service continually reviews these instructions in order to make them more accessible. In addition, there are over 60 staff on the customer service team dedicated to answering applicants' questions by phone and web chat. This number will increase as additional information on the customer service team. I hear your reply, but there are huge issues now with people getting their passports on time, especially children's passports, both first time and renewal. The current process I say to you still needs to be reviewed. As I have been advised recently by the minister's office that more than 40% of all children's passports are deemed to be incomplete applications. And you see, the problem is when it doesn't seem to the extra information or the missing information isn't sought until actually too near the date that the application was supposed to be granted. And that seems to be where the problem is. If the applications could be looked at at the start, when they are submitted, and then asked for the information, whatever is required. And there is something wrong, the children's applications part of it needs to be streamlined, because when you hear 40% of the applications are incomplete, there is something wrong being tarnished. Can I say that 99% of online child renewal applications are issued within 15 working days? I think it is important to say that. However, and this is the issue that you are raising, first time applicants do take a lot longer, and I urge parents and children who have never had a passport to apply now online if they are travelling this year. We are looking to bring down, of course, the turnaround times for first time applicants, as well as for renewals. We are putting a lot of extra staff and resources into that. The passport service reports that approximately 40% of first time child applications are incomplete. However, our records show that this is not due to issues with consent forms, as some people have raised a concern around. In fact, 77% of all incomplete child applications occur when parents have not submitted any documentation to the passport service. In these cases, parents apply online for their child's passport and can sometimes take weeks or sometimes even months to submit the required supporting documentation, such as a witness consent form and the child's identity documents, such as their birth search. Thank you, Minister. We are putting more resources into this deputy to try to improve delivery times. Thank you. You are right. As we are talking here today, there are 113,000 applications of a backlog. Can you imagine that? There are 111,000,000. And you see, something needs to be changed in relation to the pay and consent form, because that is where most of the difficulties are. And it is being sent back for lack of information or something wrong with that pay and consent form. That needs to be streamlined or something needs to be done to change it in such a way that it will be more effective. And then where I have one poor man today, these times, he applied before Christmas to renew his passport. His children bought him a ticket. And lo and behold, he has not travelled for more than 10 years. That is deemed to be a new application. And I cannot understand why it should be. When he had a passport before, what is the difference between 9 years and 11 years? Thank you, Deputy. Minister, I am asking you to address that issue as well. Why should it be treated as a new application? Because it is 11 years. Deputy, we are way over time. Deputy, we are way over time. And it should have been just as I knew it was 9 years. Thank you, Lasky. One minute. Deputy, the passport services is currently, as you would expect, experiencing a very high level of demand for passports, first time passports and renewals. In fact, this month, we will probably do 100,000. This year, we could end up doing 1.7 million passports. We have never reached a million before, even at the height of travel before COVID. So that is the extent of the demand increase that we are expecting. And we will have, by the end of March, probably about 900 people working in the passport office, which is basically double where we were last summer, or just under double. So we are putting huge resources into responding to this demand. But it does put into context that out of a total of 113 passport applications currently in the passport service, 73,000 are for first time applications. 32,000 of these are in complete applications where the applicant has either not sent in any documentation or after they have applied online or additional documentation has been requested. So we need to ensure that the application process works, the turnaround times in terms of the department happen more efficiently, but also people who are making applications fully understand what they need to do. Thank you.
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