From 3,000 to 18,000 applications — how the State rebuilt a system under pressure

Two years and nine months.

That’s how long people were waiting in the system — until everything had to change.

What happens when a public service built for 3,000 applications a year suddenly faces over 18,000?

That was the reality facing Ireland’s International Protection Office — a system under intense pressure, with growing backlogs, long delays, and real human consequences.

In this episode of Transform Gov, Maeve Kneafsey speaks to Emer Mullins and Daniel Drennan, the team behind a transformation programme that didn’t just improve a service — it fundamentally redesigned it.

From paper files that could stretch the length of a room…to fully digital workflows, online interviews, and real-time data dashboards…
this is a story of what it actually takes to deliver change inside the public service — at scale, under pressure, and in real time.

You’ll hear:
• What the system looked like before — and why it wasn’t sustainable
• How they rebuilt processes before introducing technology
• What changed for staff — and for applicants
• How decisions increased dramatically without simply adding more people
• What other public sector teams can learn from this
This is not theory.
This is real delivery.

🎧 Listen now — and if it resonates, share it with someone working on transformation.

Chapters
00:00 — Welcome to Transform Gov
01:20 — What the International Protection Office actually does
02:30 — The surge: from 3,000 to 18,000 applications
04:44 — The “before”: paper, delays and pressure
06:44 — Waiting times: up to 2 years and 9 months
08:21 — The complexity: multiple agencies involved
10:07 — The tipping point — why change was unavoidable
11:25 — Where the transformation started
13:45 — Scaling up: staff, infrastructure and process
15:27 — From paper to digital — the reality on the ground
20:40 — Digitising 35,000+ case files
22:20 — Online interviews — what changed
25:49 — Time saved, faster decisions, real outcomes
27:30 — Preparing for new EU migration rules
29:39 — A fully digital applicant journey
32:38 — Data, dashboards and decision-making
34:59 — Lessons for other public sector teams
39:21 — What comes next
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