Over 3,000 people currently waiting for passports in County Kildare

More than 3,000 people with Co Kildare addresses are currently waiting to have their passports processed.

Last week Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney issued advice that people should not book flights unless they have a valid passport - and he added that more staff are being hired in September to help with the backlog.

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, there are 2,681 passport books and 428 passport card applications on the system for applicants with a postal address in County Kildare.

Of these there are 949 books and 112 cards awaiting action by the applicant, such as sending on of further documentation.

Nationwide

Overall, the number of online passport applications in the system is currently approximately 95,000 as of last weekend.

A Department spokesperson added: “The applications can be divided as incomplete applications standing at 43,000 (where we are awaiting further documentation from applicants), with 52,000 applications with the Passport Service currently processing."

In July, the average number of applications received per week was 20,000 - but in the first week of August, more than 22,000 applications were received.

The spokesperson added: "Since May we have produced 325,148 passports.

“This represents 83% of the overall 391,841 passports produced since January.

“In the month of July 86,452 passport applications were received and 103,083 passports were produced.”