Outsourcing hint amid passport office crisis
Passport services could be shifted to another department or even outsourced to private operators as the applications backlog smashed the 50,000 barrier, top Government officials warned today.
The tacit threat will further heighten tensions with staff at Dublin’s Passport Office who issued protective notice of intention to strike within a week in a dispute over public sector pay and conditions.
Ugly scenes erupted for a fourth day at the Molesworth Street premises as hundreds of people with imminent travel plans queued from as early as yesterday evening to get their travel documents.
One 34-year-old man, Colin Gillick from Co Wicklow, chained himself to a door handle inside the office at one stage, only leaving after an assurance he could collect his passport on Friday.
Other disgruntled holidaymakers complained that despite trade union assurances that staff would deal with applications for immediate travel plans, management had refused to do so inside.
