A decade ago, Ireland’s passport service was in the same place as Canada: long queues, paper processes, and spiking delays. And then they decided to fix it.
The country started small: a reservation tool to book time in the office freed up workers, letting them tackle the backlog. Then online renewals for adults, then children. Eventually, online applications with your identity certified by your local police station.
It wasn’t easy. It took political support, a willingness to experiment, careful design—and a willingness to rewrite outdated laws for the modern world. In the second of our series on passport modernization, we talk to Professor of Practice at the University of Limerick, John Savage, who worked on the modernization effort, to find out how it happened—and what Canada can learn about modernizing every government service.
Credit to : The Functional Government Podcast