AN OFFER by protesting workers at the Passport Office to prioritise urgent travel applications will have no major impact on delays in the service, Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said last night.
After stinging criticism of its industrial action this week, the Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU) said yesterday it would extend the grounds for emergency passport provision beyond the criteria of bereavement and serious illness to cover immediate travel.
But the backlog of unprocessed passports remained at about 40,000 last night, a spokesman for the Minister said.
Mr Martin last night urged the CPSU to suspend its industrial action as it was “the only realistic way of clearing the backlog of applications in the system”.
“While the decision of the CPSU to deal with people with imminent travel plans is welcome, it will not have any major impact,” he said.
Bringing more people to the public counter would not alleviate the problems at the Molesworth Street office in Dublin, he said.
He urged unions to drop their overtime ban and to allow the annual recruitment of 50 temporary staff to deal with the seasonal demand.
However, the CPSU said it would not be calling off its campaign of action, which was in protest at pay cuts.
It said the proposed measures would help reduce the pressure on the Passport Office, although it conceded that because of the large backlog in applications it could not guarantee that everyone with immediate travel requirements would receive their passports on time.
The CPSU said that, as a quid pro quo for its proposed changes, the Department of Foreign Affairs should put in place mechanisms to manage the queues at the office to ensure those with immediate travel plans were identified and given priority.
For a third day yesterday there were angry scenes at the Molesworth Street office, where lengthy queues began forming from as early as 3am.
On Monday, the department warned staff in passport offices that if they refused to attend the public counter when rostered to do so, they may not be paid for the period concerned even if they were available to carry out other duties.
Department sources said the issue of deducting pay did not arise yesterday.
The Irish Timesunderstands that, in addition to the counter closures and bans on answering phones, the CPSU has put in place a directive to members at the passport production facility in Balbriggan setting out "more realistic numbers" of passport applications to be checked.
Union sources said that prior to the dispute, 25 to 28 passport applications were being checked daily but the new figure was about 22 to 25.