[ad_1]
A record number of Irish passports have been issued in one year, with 1,080,000 issued in 2022.
The number of first-time passport applications from Northern Ireland and Great Britain was 100,000 out of a total of over 1.15 million applications received.
The Irish Passport Service announced in November that it had reached the millionth mark in November, breaking the previous record of 935,000 in 2019.
Applications were also received from the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, France, Spain, Germany and South Africa.
Meanwhile, the Irish Passport Service said the most popular surname worldwide was Murphy and the most popular baby girls’ names were Emily, Fiadh and Lily, while Noah, Jack and James topped the list for baby boys.
The oldest applicant was 102 years old and the youngest was only three days old.
August was the busiest month for customer service hub phone calls, with more than 41,000 calls handled. July was the busiest month for the webchat service, with over 23,000 chats handled.
Minister of State and Foreign Affairs Michael Martin described the extraordinary number of applications.
“In 2022, the Passport Service received an extraordinary number of applications and issued passports,” he said.
“This was a direct result of pent-up demand due to travel disruptions during 2020 and 2021.
“The Government has made significant investment over the year to enhance services to meet this demand.”
“The passport service received over 1.15 million passport applications in 2022 and is set to issue just 1.1 million passports by the end of the year.
“More than 99% of all online renewal applications and paper applications are issued within the standard turnaround time.
“In addition, service enhancements have enabled the Passport Service customer service hub to handle more than 280,000 calls and more than 126,000 chats through its webchat service.”
Mr Martin said he was expecting another busy year for the passport service in 2023.
He added: “I would like to express my gratitude to the staff of the Passport Service who responded to the challenges of 2022 with great diligence and resilience.
“His commitment to public service and hard work is the historic achievement of issuing more than one million passports in a calendar year. My department will continue to work to ensure our services meet the needs of our citizens in 2023.”
[ad_2]
Source link
