Travel chaos as Irish passport office closed for system upgrade

THOSE needing to renew their passports in Ireland before travel this Easter may have to wait after the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs announced the passport office will be closed for two days for maintenance.

The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs issued the following statement:

Due to a systems upgrade, the Passport Online Service and Passport Tracking will not be available from 3pm Friday 31st March 2023 until 12 noon Sunday 2nd April 2023. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

For applicants, the current information and passport turnaround times are as follows:

Simple Online Renewal – 10 Working Days

Complex Online Renewal – 15 Working Days

First-Time Online Application – 20 Working Days

Post Passport (paper) Application – 8 weeks

In 2022 a record number of 1,080,000 Irish passports were issued, breaking the previous record of 935,000 in 2019.

Applications were received from as far away as the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, France, Spain, Germany and South Africa.

At the time Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheal Martin commented, “Over 99% of all online renewal applications and paper applications are issuing within the standard turnaround times

“The historic achievement of over one million passports issued in a calendar year is down to their commitment to public service and hard work. My department will continue to work to ensure that our services meet the needs of our citizens in 2023.”

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