According to the Irish Times, each day over 4,100 people in Ireland apply for a new passport, the Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed. Currently, 70,000 passport applications are in backlog. There has been a steady increase in passport applications as evidenced by March 2010 when the number of backlogged passports was at 50,000. That means that 20,000 passport applications have been added to the backlog list in just a month! The passport office in Dublin processes approximately 3,600 passports a day, approximately 500 applications less than what are received on a daily basis. Approximately 700,000 passport applications are received in Ireland annually. The passport offices process approximately 650,000 applications every year. The passport offices are asking that public counters should only be used by those who need to travel for reasons of family emergency such as death, illness or welfare of a family member.
Maybe Ireland should learn from India and start installing Passport Kiosks. Another solution may be to use text messaging like in Singapore. Whatever method Ireland chooses, it is clear that something must be done quickly!
Tags: Ireland visa, passport, passport application, passport kiosks, passport offices