People are craving a sense of normality and a feeling of freedom. This is evident from the enthusiasm of the majority to be vaccinated. The issuing of digital green certificates will see thousands travel in the coming weeks. However, it will not bring joy to the thousands more who cannot obtain passports. While the April backlog of 83,000 has been reduced, there remains a minimum eight-week turnaround for online applications. Passport Express remains suspended. I am inundated with contacts from people across County Tipperary who are genuinely in need of a passport. I fully understand and appreciate the pressure under which the Passport Office is working. Staff need practical support and resources to help them cope with a heavy workload. Unless this matter is resolved, there is little point in telling people they can travel with green certificates. Without passports, they remain grounded. What is currently being done to speed up the process of issuing passports?

I thank Deputy Lowry for raising this issue. I know a number of Deputies have also raised it with the Minister, Deputy Coveney. The passport service commenced the scaling up of operations on 4 May 2021 in line with the phased easing of restrictions set out in the Covid-19 resilience and recovery plan. The service has been focused since then on four priority areas, namely, clearing the Covid-19 backlog of 89,000 passport applications, processing all renewal applications, including new applications, within ten working days, processing urgent and emergency applications, and providing customer services through phone and web chat facilities. Progress has been made in clearing the Covid-19 backlog. Backlog applications that were completed properly have been processed and passports have issued. In the case of incomplete applications, the passport service has been in contact with applicants regarding the need to send in outstanding documents. Once all outstanding required documentation is received, the issuance of passports will follow. Passport service phone and web chat services are available to all people whose passport applications have, unfortunately, been affected by Covid-19 restrictions.

Thank you, Taoiseach.

I assure the Deputy that the passport service's goal is to continue to scale up operations after Covid-19 and to return to normal levels of service as soon as possible.