A Galway Travel Agent is calling on the Department of Foreign Affairs to reopen the Passport Office to process outstanding passport applications in order to avoid a backlog of applications when international travel resumes.

The Passport Office paused much of its operations late last December.

The Irish Travel Agents Association believes this service is essential and that clearing the backlog now will allow for faster economic recovery, in terms of restarting inbound and outbound tourism.

Maura Fahy of Fahy Travel in Galway says there are 80,000 applications sitting to be processed.

She has been telling Midwest News that she can't understand why all passport applications can be processed....