ACTION BY civil servants at the passport office in Dublin yesterday has been described as “unacceptable” and “a potential security risk” by a senior Government source.
A memo may be issued on Monday outlining the consequences of the non-performance of duties and the Government will have no choice but to insist on the performance of duties by officers, the source said. It was not clear if this referred to passport office staff or all civil servants.
More than 20 people staged a protest at the passport officeyesterday after staff closed the office at 1pm as part of industrial action across the public sector.
Those collecting passports reported long queues on Molesworth Street yesterday morning.
Jane Clarke from Dundrum is due to fly to Malawi on Monday to volunteer with the Wells for Zoë organisation for two weeks. Hers was ticket number 262 yesterday.
“They just closed the windows at 255 . . . while people were talking to us and refused to do anything . . . So we stopped and said, we’re not moving until someone talks to us,” she said. “There was only about 20 or 25 of us left in the office and they could have seen us all in about a half an hour.”
Ms Clarke got her passport just after 4pm. She estimates that out of about 25 people who protested, 10 received their passports.
Michelle Deegan from Swords is due to fly to St Lucia on Monday for her brother’s wedding.
“They pulled down the shutters at 1.05pm while people were still standing there. One staff member leaned over another one who was trying to give a girl a phone number . . . and a staff member came behind her and pulled the shutter down,” she said.
She had received a commitment that she will receive her passport before flying out, she added.
One woman who did not wish to be named said she had queued all day on Thursday and returned to the passport office at 10am yesterday to secure passports for her two children. She said she faced the prospect of rebooking flights to Eurodisney in France, where her family are due to fly on Monday at a cost of €1,200.
The CPSU, the union behind the low-level action, described the situation in the passport office yesterday as a “debacle”.
CPSU deputy general secretary Eoin Ronayne accused senior management of “appalling mismanagement” due to statements to the media which led “several hundred” more people to attend the office yesterday.