Holidaymakers have been given updated advice if they're about to apply for an Irish passport renewal ahead of the busy summer season.
There has been a surge in demand for passports as people seek to travel abroad now that the Covid-19 pandemic has receded.
May generally is the month with the most passport applications lodged - followed by April and June.
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But there have been numerous public complaints from customers as many wait weeks for the arrival of their essential travel document.
Passengers have also been warned in recent weeks that with the current influx of applications, nobody should book anything until they have their new passport in their hands - as some are left unable to catch their planned flights.
Siobhan Byrne, Director of the Irish Passport Service, has revealed some key tips to help people move their applications along.
"One thing that people get a little bit confused on is that when they apply for a passport online, that wouldn't be when the processing timeline starts," she told Newstalk's The Hard Shoulder.
Ms Byrne also specified that it doesn't start until they actually send in the documents.
She explained: "Other times there can be issues with the documentation that's received, and so we may have to go back to the applicant to get certain things clarified or ask for more documentation."
When it comes to choosing the method of passport applications, Ms Byrne said paper applications generally take longer than those done digitally.
"Paper applications do take longer to process - it doesn't really matter whether it's a renewal application or a first-time application.
"They all get processed in exactly the same way, whereas with the online system there's a greater efficiency certainly for the renewals than there is for the first-timers.
"It is taking a number of weeks longer to do those applications".
Ms Byrne said turnaround times for passport renewals are as expected - two weeks for an adult passport renewal and three weeks for child renewals but first-time applications are taking longer.
"Our first-time applications do take longer because they're a lot more complex to process.
"But we've brought the turnaround time for those down from eight weeks - which it was at the beginning of March - and it is now at six weeks.
"And we're making very good progress with those applications."
The Passport Service has issued more than 460,000 passports since the beginning of this year, compared with 634,000 in total during 2021.
This year is expected to see around 1.7 million passport applications submitted in Ireland.
More people applied for an Irish passport over a British one in Northern Ireland for the first time ever in 2020.
The Department for Foreign Affairs has said while the Passport Service "is experiencing a very high volume of applications, this does not represent a backlog".
It said there is "a continuous stream of new applications and a continuous dispatch of completed passports happening every day".
"We are having a very, very busy year for passports this year - and that's directly as a result of limited travel for the last couple of years," Ms Byrne added.
"People are travelling this year, and we're certainly seeing a high demand for passports."
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