The Passport Service has started a recruitment drive with more than 113,000 backlogged applications for passports.
The department said it is taking on “significant numbers of additional staff” in the coming weeks.
It comes as huge numbers of people look to travel abroad once again this year.
The passport service hopes to have doubled the number of staff compared to June 2021 levels once the recruitment drive has been completed.
The Passport Office was closed to all but urgent applications for long periods during the pandemic, leading to a large backlog building up.
When Level 5 restrictions came into effect in December 2020 and lasted for a number of months, for example, people went for months without documents they had sent in as part of their passport applications.
However, the Department of Foreign Affairs has said the Passport Service has been fully functioning since May 2021 with all operational staff in attendance.
The current turnaround times for straightforward adult online renewals are 10 working days, and 15 working days for complex or child online renewals.
On the other hand, the average turnaround time for first-time applications on Passport Online is 40 working days, and eight weeks for An Post’s mail-in Passport Express service.
A department spokesperson said that the first-time applications are taking longer to process as it is critical to ensure that the applicant is entitled to Irish citizenship and, in the case of children, that the consent of all guardians is obtained.
