Ryanair refuses to help out in passport dispute

AIRLINE APPEAL:RYANAIR HAS SAID it will not waive its requirement for passengers travelling between Ireland and Britain to carry their passports. A Fianna Fáil TD, Michael Kennedy, had argued that such a move would be a "small gesture" to alleviate the stress experienced by passengers who cannot fly because of the industrial dispute at the Passport Office in Dublin.

“There is only a legal requirement to show photo ID when travelling in Ireland or to the UK,” he said, “so I am asking for Ryanair to show some leniency and facilitate those who are without their passports due to no fault of their own.”

Ryanair insists on passports for travel to Britain even though they are not required by law, as the Republic and the UK have a common travel area.

Airline spokesman Stephen McNamara said that Kennedy’s call was “silly” and that Ryanair’s job was not to cover for “Government incompetence”. “As an airline flying to more than 26 countries and carrying over 70 nationalities daily, there is no question of our agreed passport requirement to be altered or waived,” he said.

“The best way to release the pressure on the passport system is for the Government to keep the Passport Office open and to draft in temporary staff to work through evenings and weekends, to give Irish citizens the passport service they have paid for and are entitled to.”

The president of the Irish Tour Operators Federation, Kevin Nolan, urged anybody who is flying this summer to renew their passports now rather than wait until later in the year to do so. “We are really concerned with the summer season just five to six weeks away, given the level of backlog.”