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23/03/10
Passport office talks must start this morning - ITAA

  • Backlog fiasco causing needless anxiety to many thousands of citizens
  • Practical implications of dispute are enormous.
  • Urges Ryanair to waive passport only acceptable ID rule for UK flights.
Tuesday 23 March 2010  ITAA CEO, Simon Nugent this morning called for immediate action by Passport office management and CPSU representatives to make a plan and start clearing the backlog of applications currently building up at an appalling pace.

“This practical problem has to be separated out from the wider issue of public sector pay negotiations.  The crisis is hardly what the passport office staff (who normally provide an excellent service) intended when they commenced their work to rule.  It simply has to be solved.    

“I have just been talking to some of the 250 people queuing outside the Passport Office in Molesworth St but the queue is just the tip of an iceberg,  Travel agents offices are inundated with customers looking for advice about where they stand and.     Everywhere, the problem is the same.  People are angry, they know they don’t have their passports and they have no clue how long it is going to take to obtain one.   They can not understand why they are being victimised in this union - government dispute.  People I spoke to risk loosing huge money on well earned holidays, and others are being blocked from visiting aged and ill relatives.  Business travellers are missing out on valuable export orders.  This is nothing like e.g. a bus strike where one just ends up being late for work or school.  The impact of this work to rule on people’s lives is huge.  

“But this is a problem that can be solved and be solved relatively easily if workers and management were to talk face to face.  We can’t understand why this did not happen on Friday or yesterday.  It has to happen today.”

Mr Nugent also urged Ryanair to suspend its “Passport only form of ID” rule for travel between Ireland and the UK.  “I spoke to several people in the queue this morning who have bought Ryanair tickets to the UK.  If Ryanair accepted other forms of ID for UK trips for the next couple of months - this would be one way to reduce pressure on the passport system – and increase their sales.


For further information

Simon Nugent,
Chief Executive ITAA

01 6794179 or 086 2459679

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