Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 274: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the number of unprocessed applications for passports that are lodged in the passport office; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21875/10]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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At 21 May, 2010 there were 62,944 applications in the system. My Department has obtained the necessary sanction to recruit 50 temporary staff and arrangements have been made for staff to commence work at short notice. If necessary, we are prepared to recruit additional staff.

These arrears are a direct result of the ongoing industrial action by the Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU). It is presently taking up to twenty five working days to process individual applications submitted through the Passport Express Service, the Northern Ireland Passport Express Service and at the counters in the Passport Office. Applications submitted through ordinary post are taking up to eight weeks to process. Applications, other than those that are prioritised on the basis of demonstrable urgent humanitarian need, are being processed on a first come first served basis.

The dispute is having a severe impact on the travelling public. There are very many Irish citizens whose trips abroad have had to be cancelled and holiday and work plans severely disrupted. Every effort is being made to reduce the waiting time for applications, pending the resolution of the industrial action. Staff have been working overtime for some weeks and this has kept the level of increase in the backlog to a minimum and in recent days seen a marginal reduction in the backlog.

However, the backlog in passport applications can and will be overcome when the CPSU call off their industrial action and co-operate with the recruitment of temporary staff normally engaged at this time of year. I would once again call on the CPSU to withdraw this restriction and to allow a significant number of currently unemployed workers to take on paid employment and assist in reducing the sizeable backlog of passport applications.