I thank the committee for giving management the opportunity to give a managerial and, I hope, honest and accurate perspective on the circumstances in the Passport Office. On behalf of the Minister, I express regret that he could not be here in person. He has 12 hours of meetings in Paris today. He has a meeting with his French counterpart, Mr. Bernard Kouchner, which has already been postponed once, and he has investment meetings with pharmaceutical, IT and engineering companies. He is also attending a meeting of the local Global Irish Network and therefore has a very full day. He would very much have liked to attend this meeting and issued a statement this morning that sets out very clearly his views on the matter under discussion.
I apologise to our customers, the Irish people, for the suffering and inconvenience they have had to endure over recent weeks, particularly over recent days, as a result of industrial action at the Passport Office. As somebody who is proud to be a civil servant and to serve the Irish people, I find the present situation deeply upsetting. I never expected to see the Irish people treated in this way by the very people who are paid to serve them.
We have a passport service of which we can, in normal times, be proud. The passport service has been a model of an efficient and customer-friendly public service. This high-grade service has been delivered by the very same civil servants who are now engaged in industrial action. These are colleagues, some of whom I have worked with for over 30 years. They are decent, hard-working people and many of them are still endeavouring to assist customers as best they can within the restrictions laid down by the leadership of the unions. This industrial action is part of public service-wide action in protest against public service pay cuts. It is not caused by any internal dispute within the Department of Foreign Affairs.
I do not intend to discuss the rights and wrongs of the public service pay cuts, although I have made clear to staff that I do not support the industrial action, nor do I intend to comment on the wider issue of the negotiations between the Government and public service unions. I would like to use this opportunity to inform the public of what has happened and why it finds itself in its current position. Industrial action in the Passport Office by CPSU and PSEU members began on 19 January as part of action across the Civil Service. This action did not constitute a work to rule, but took the form of a refusal to carry out core work activities, such as periodic refusal to answer phones and to staff public counters, as well as the introduction of production quotas set by the unions, rather than by management.
The management response was determined centrally by the Department of Finance, on instruction from the Government, which, understandably, was anxious to avoid confrontation or escalation, with a view to entering into negotiations with the public service unions on a range of issues. As committee members know, these negotiations are ongoing and seem to be making progress.
Particular difficulties arose with regard to the Passport Office, which adjusts staff resources to meet fluctuating demand through granting overtime and recruitment of temporary clerical assistants to deal with work over the peak Easter and summer periods. It is normal practice for the Department to recruit temporary clerical officers, TCOs, to meet seasonal demand. In early February, the Department of Finance sanctioned recruitment of 50 TCOs and we were in negotiations with it to obtain sanction for the recruitment of an additional 35. However, on 15 February, the unions announced that they were blacking co-operation with TCOs, even though this has been a normal aspect of the operation of the Passport Office.
In late February, the Department sanctioned the payment of overtime. Again, this is a standard arrangement in the Passport Office to deal with a seasonal surge in demand. Some 75 members of staff worked overtime on Saturday 27 February, processing 1,700 applications. Unions immediately instructed their members not to work overtime. Only three members of staff volunteered for overtime the following weekend. This took place well before the CPSU introduced its blanket Civil Service wide ban on overtime on 15 March. Unions also refused to deal with applications transferred from London or to allow the transfer of staff between divisions. This is normal practice. As a result of the action by the CPSU and PSEU, a backlog in applications began to build up.
On 4 March, the Department appealed to customers to submit applications through the passport express channel and asked them not to attend the public office other than in cases where travel was necessary for reasons of emergency. We also announced that the 10-day guarantee for processing of applications submitted through passport express and its Northern Ireland equivalent was suspended. In an effort to ease the difficulties arising for customers, the Department also announced that the requirement for applicants seeking to renew their passports to submit their existing passport was suspended in cases where the existing passport was still valid. This would allow customers to continue to travel while awaiting a new passport. However, CPSU headquarters immediately issued an instruction to its members not to implement this provision and to return any application meeting the revised requirements to the applicant. The Department informed staff that such action would violate the terms of the Passport Act, but the CPSU maintained its instruction.
A further setback occurred with the extensive flooding of the Molesworth Street Office on Tuesday of last week. This resulted in dislocation of staff and one passport production machine being put out of action. I thank the OPW for the magnificent effort it made to restore the offices. Through its efforts and with the co-operation of staff the affected offices have now been reoccupied. The passport production machine may be damaged beyond repair, but sufficient capacity exists in Balbriggan to meet foreseeable demand.
Matters came to a head on Friday of last week when, against the background of growing numbers seeking to attend the public office, the PSEU and CPSU informed us of their intention to close the counters in the public office at 1 p.m. Management took the initiative, out of courtesy to our customers, to put out a notice to this effect, in an effort to avoid customers making often long journeys to the public office only to find it closed. A situation developed, with large numbers of people queuing outside the office and some inside refusing to leave without their passports. Management appealed to the PSEU and the CPSU to suspend their decision to close the public office. The PSEU agreed, but the CPSU refused. Management was told that an official from headquarters was coming to the Molesworth Street office to review the situation. I waited at the office in the hope of being able to engage this official, but in the event, the official did not come into the office and the shutdown went ahead.
Subsequently, a threat was broadcast on live radio against passport service staff by a customer who refused to leave the premises until he received his passport. This situation was defused by the direct intervention of the head of the passport service who has frequently been obliged go out to the front of the office to explain the situation to angry members of the public who have been denied service through industrial action. The situation continues to be difficult, as is evident. Yesterday and today more and more people have come to the office. They are frustrated and understandably angry about the treatment they have received. I will ask the head of the Passport Office service to update the committee on the situation.
Management met the CPSU on several occasions in recent days and at a meeting yesterday evening, it presented its proposal to amend its industrial action to facilitate immediate travel. The Department sought to engage, on the basis of the promise made by general secretary of the CPSU, Mr. Horan, to work with management to reduce the backlog in passport applications. We outlined to the union the measures that would be necessary for this purpose. These include: cessation of the present industrial action; lifting the ban on overtime; and recruitment of temporary clerical staff. This is an annual seasonal measure to prevent the accumulation of arrears. We also requested flexibility in the assignment of staff to pressure points and in the allocation of work to the different passport offices. We urged the CPSU to lift the industrial action relating to answering telephones to enable us to engage with the public and identify urgent applications.
I am sorry to say that the decision announced by the CPSU to extend fast-track criteria to include all immediate travel, while welcome, is too little too late. It will simply result in prioritisation of some applications at the expense of others and could increase the surge of customers to the public office. The unions have brought about a backlog so large that all applications are now urgent. Their proposal would not result in the issuance of a single additional passport and would do nothing to reduce the backlog, which currently stands at almost 50,000 applications. What we need from the unions is that they allow their members the flexibility to enable the passport offices to increase passport production. This can only be achieved in the same way as it is achieved every other year, by the deployment of additional temporary staff and by working overtime.
I thank the Chairman and committee members for listening. There is more I could say about the deportment of the unions, particularly the CPSU, on this matter. They have missed no opportunity to seek to transfer the blame for the current crisis on to management. However, my main concern is for the members of the public who are suffering so grievously as a result of this industrial action. It behoves me, therefore, not to say anything that would make it more difficult to bring this regrettable action to an end.
I will now ask Mr. Joe Nugent, head of the passport service, to update the committee on the current situation in the passport office and brief it on the measures we have identified which, with the co-operation of staff and the unions, we can take to reduce the inconvenience to the public.
