Passport renewals might soon be offered online only as Government seeks to speed up processing times.
The Tánaiste admitted today that the current system was "running into real difficulties with first time passports," but he pointed to the online renewal system which "works very well."
Leo Varadkar said too that ways to ensure smoother communication between gardaí and the Passport Office to quickly authenticate applications are being looked at.
And passport application forms are set to be reviewed to see if they can be improved given that up to 40% of them are being filled out incorrectly.
Mr Varadkar said between 30% to 40% of calls to his constituency office are now related to passports.
Following on from calls at a Fine Gael Parliamentary Party meeting last night to appoint a Minister for Passports, the Tánaiste joked "who would could you convince to do it?"
Yesterday, An Post renamed its passport application service from 'Passport Express' to 'Post Passport'.
The change came following complaints that the name was misleading.
An Post said: "This change of name came into force yesterday following a period of engagement with both the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Passport Office".
It advised customers that "the Passport Office is currently taking six to eight weeks to process applications and renewals through the Post Passport channel".
The Ombudsman's office had criticised the Passport Service in its latest report. saying there was "a significant increase in complaints in 2021 - the bulk of those relating to delays in processing first-time passport applications."
