The Foreign Affairs Minister says the number of passport applications is 'off the charts' this year.
Simon Coveney says there’s been three months of over 100,000 sign ups, putting strain on the system.
The majority are processed quickly, but some 37,000 are stuck awaiting more information from the applicant.
Minister Coveney says the sheer volume is like nothing he's ever seen before:
"Off the charts in terms of anything we've experienced in recent years.
"We've had three months in a row of record application numbers, as in the highest ever.
"I think it was 137,000 in January, 150-something-thousand in February, and already it's well over, or certainly will be well over 100,000 in March.
"In an previous year, we hadn't gone over 100,000 in a month."
