More than 20 people staged a sit in at the Passport Office in Dublin this afternoon after the public counters closed at lunchtime due to industrial action by public servants.
Some of the people involved rang RTÉ’s Liveline programme to complain that they were unable to get their passports due to the industrial action.
Workers were refusing to operate public counters, which closed to the public at 1pm, while telephones were not answered from 9am for a four-hour period.
The action is part of an ongoing campaign by public service workers against pay cuts.
The Passport Service apologised to customers for the disruption of service and inconvenience caused.
The Civil Public and Services Union, whose members work there, claimed a statement yesterday by the Department of Foreign Affairs had caused undue panic amongst members of the public.
The union said the Department had not told the public that the Passport Office was reopening on Monday.
Despite the fact that low level industrial action has continued across the public service for almost two months, so far no disciplinary action has been taken against any public servant, and no employee has had their pay docked.
The unruly scenes at the Passport office represent the worst disruption so far triggered by the two month old industrial action by public servants over pay cuts.
Now senior sources close to the Government have expressed their concern about those scenes, which they said could have constituted a security risk.
The sources described the disruption as unacceptable, and said the Government would have no choice but to insist on the performance of duties by the relevant officers.
It is understood that a memo may be sent to Government employees on Monday warning them of the consequences of non-performance of their duties.
Meanwhile, Labour Relations Chief Executive Kieran Mulvey and Director of Conciliation Kevin Foley are continuing their efforts to resolve this worsening row between the government and its employees - with sources hoping for a deal before Easter.
