A ban on the recruitment of temporary staff is still in place at the Passport Office, but the backlog increase appears to be due to a dramatic rise in the number if applications, the general secretary of the Civil Public and Service Union (CPSU) said today.
Blair Horan said the backlog increase is due the number of applications increasing dramatically. "There are 650,000 passport applications processed every year, so it is an enormous amount of passports that gets processed," he said today.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Mr Horan said while some low level industrial action was still taking place, "anyone who needed an emergency passport for bereavement or illness always got one".
“The Irish passport was probably the best in Europe, you got a passport within 10 days, which probably meant people tended to leave it to the last minute,” he added.
Fianna Fáil TD for Dublin North, Michael Kennedy, today called on the CPSU to lift the ban on recruitment for temporary staff to deal with the backlog of passport applications.
Mr Kennedy said, “last month’s dispute caused much confusion and panic amongst the general public which has led to 4,000 applications a day and an increase of 16,000 applications to the Passport Office since the end of March. People are clearly fearing the worst and sending in passport applications months ahead of travelling and this is continuing to add to the backlog.”
Last month, the CPSU blocked offers of an extra 50 temporary staff which would help clear the backlog, he said. “With the summer fast approaching, I am calling on the CPSU to immediately lift the ban."
Fine Gael spokesman for foreign affairs Billy Timmins said it was taking up to 10 weeks for passport applications to be processed in the Irish Embassy in London with no evidence of any contingency plan to deal with this problem in evidence.
Without a swift resolution to the ongoing limited industrial action, the chaos and backlogs at our Passport Offices will continue to worsen, he said. "It is clear that the public are hugely concerned by this issue, hence the growing backlog of passport applications," he added.
Meanwhile, the Irish embassy in London is advising people not to make travel plans until that have a valid passport in their possession that will cover the full period of their journey.
In a notice to customers, the embassy also said: "Customers should note also that some countries require visitors to have a minimum validity period remaining on their passport".