There is currently a backlog of nearly 5,000 Personal Public Service Numbers (PPSN) applications in the country, the Department of Social Protection has confirmed. According to the department, it takes four to five weeks in areas such as Dublin and Cork to process the applications.
Many people, especially foreign nationals in Ireland are facing issues with this backlog as they need PPS Numbers for employment, bill payment as well as to continue their stay in the country. Some of them submitted their applications back in December last year and say they have not heard anything from the department yet.
Meanwhile the department has confirmed that additional resources have been assigned to clear this backlog. The applications of people who need the PPS Numbers for their employment will be given priority, the department spokesperson has said.
Some applications are incomplete and this also leads to delays. According to the spokesperson, there were some 1,500 incomplete applications in December which made it difficult to process on time.
“Incomplete applications can, as you can understand, affect the processing time. The average timeline for processing PPSN applications was approximately two weeks during December across most of the Department’s regions. The average processing time is in the order of 4 to 5 weeks across the Dublin and Cork regions.” said the spokesperson.