Shatter: Unions should be taken to court

COURT injunctions should be issued against unions involved in industrial action at the passport office, Fine Gael’s Alan Shatter has demanded.

The call came during a session of the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs yesterday, where officials from the department said the backlog in passport applications now stood at just under 50,000.

This is a rise from about 44,000 at the beginning of the week.