Sources at the Department of Foreign Affairs have confirmed that the Passport Office now has a backlog of 40,000 passport applications waiting to be processed
It is thought it will now take up to 20 working days to complete an application.
It is unclear whether the backlog will rise over the approaching Easter holidays, particularly as the holiday season approaches and demand traditionally increases.
There has been confusion over a circular reportedly sent to staff at the Passport Office by Department of Foreign Affairs management.
According to the management side, staff were warned that from today, pay would be docked if they refused to carry out any duties within their grade, even if they were carrying out other duties.
However, the Civil and Public Services Union said the circular staff had actually received only warned that staff may not be paid if they refuse to attend the public counter.
Notices were issued to staff following chaotic scenes at the Passport Office on Friday and today due to the industrial action by the CPSU.
Later, the General Secretary of the CPSU, Blair Horan says the Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that the memo sent to staff at the passport office only relates to a refusal to do counter duties.
Mr Horan also warned that if pay were docked there would be a strike.
Earlier, Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said 'there will be action taken' in relation to the closure of the Passport Office on Friday, but he gave no further details saying that management would be communicating with staff.
He said he was ‘extremely disappointed’ by the action and that it was ‘absolutely unacceptable’.
'It has brought misery to many Irish citizens who needed passports to travel abroad for business, holidays, or even to find work.'
He said the current talks process between the Government and unions meant that the action by the CPSU was ‘unacceptable’.
Speaking during a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, Mr Martin said what compounded the action was that the Passport Service had respect across the community and had been internationally benchmarked.
Friday's scenes
Blair Horan, head of the Civil and Public Servants Union, has warned the Government not to threaten his members with disciplinary action following the disturbances which arose at the Passport Office last week because of their industrial action.
Unruly scenes developed when members of the public refused to leave the Passport Office after staff shut down public counters at lunchtime as part of their work-to-rule over pay cuts.
On Friday, senior sources close to the Government described the situation as 'unacceptable', and warned that disciplinary action might have to be taken.
Arriving for today's talks aimed at resolving the public sector row over pay cuts, Mr Horan blamed management for failing to plan for the Passport Office closure, which they had been informed of several days earlier.
He said his union would work with management to see if a way could be found to avoid a repeat of Friday's situation.
However, he warned that it would not be conducive to de-escalating the temperature if management started to threaten their members.
He said there was an industrial dispute going on - and if management threatened his members, he could not guarantee how they might react.
He said the problem had arisen because the Government had twice cut his low paid members' pay, while restoring pay cuts for senior public servants.
Arriving for the second week of public sector negotiations chaired by Labour Relations Commission Chief Executive Kieran Mulvey, IMPACT General Secretary Peter McLoone said progress was being made.
He said there would then be intense discussions for the remainder of the week on big ticket issues, particularly how pay in the public sector is handled in future, adding that he expected the talks to run into the weekend.
He said that while the negotiations were going to be difficult and challenging, due to the complex issues they were dealing with, he was confident they could produce an outcome which the two sides could put to their constituencies next week.
