Number of passports issued falls by 60% as Covid hits travel

More than 400,000 Irish passports have been issued this year, a 60 per cent drop on last year, latest figures show.

The Passport Service issued 428,896 passports in total up to December 6th this year including 366,236 passport booklets and 62,660 passport cards with 305,188 applications made online.

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney issued a report summarising a year of the service's operations and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The report shows that the oldest applicant was 102 years of age, making a paper application while the oldest online applicant was 100 years old. The youngest passport applicant was just 11 days old.

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Olivia, Mia and Saoirse were the most popular baby girls’ names in the applications while Noah, Adam and Cillian topped the baby boys’ list.

And Murphy was the most common surname worldwide among applicants.

Mr Coveney paid tribute to the Passport Service which he said cleared the backlog of applications after the first lockdown between March 27th and June 28th within four weeks and the second backlog between October 22nd and November 26th, within three weeks.

Special plans were put in place to assist those whose applications were regarded as urgent during the lockdown periods, with more than 650 passports issued to Irish citizens both at home and abroad in response to emergency or urgent requests such as serious illness or death.

During the highest level of restrictions when the processing of applications ceased, staff were redeployed into other “essential public service” areas including contact tracing for the HSE and the processing of Covid-19 related benefits for the Department of Social Protection. Mr Coveney added that “at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Passport Service staff were critical in assisting our citizens abroad”.

In February 75,499 passports were issued compared to just 6,396 in November and 6,445 in December. The total number of passports issued for the year to December 6th was around 40 per cent of the number issued the previous year.

The figures in the report show a 56 per cent decrease in applications from Northern Ireland compared to last year, 44 per cent of a reduction in applications from Britain, a drop of 55 per cent in applications from Ireland and 31 per cent from the rest of the world.

The statistics also show that while the numbers of applications for Irish passports from Britain and Northern Ireland increased continuously after the Brexit referendum in June 2016, and surged in early 2019 to almost 14,000 applications, they have since declined.

The report for 2020 also shows that five of the six Northern Ireland counties were in the top 10 for the number of first time applicants. After Dublin with 3,185 first time applicants, Antrim was in second place with 2,750 applications, followed by Down (1,862) Cork (860), Derry (696), Tyrone (539) and Armagh (526). Fermanagh was in 20th place with 191 first time applicants.

Applicants living in Ireland accounted for the largest number of passports issued at 206,756, followed by Britain with 51,195, the US (8,320), Australia (4,565), Canada (2,034) and France (1,775).

The service handled 117,000 chats through its WebChat service in 2020 and handled more than 87,000 calls. Mr Coveney said that “88 per cent of our customers felt that we met or exceeded their expectations this year”.

He urged applicants to use the online service as the cheapest and most convenient way to apply for a passport. He said that applicants in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Britain and Europe who are applying for the first time are also eligible to use the online service.

“The online service is extremely easy to use. It has won awards for its user-friendly process, including a NALA (National Adult Literacy Agency) award for the use of plain English. Passport Online is for everyone from new born babies to hundred year olds.”