Courts / Dublin / Report
Civil servants suspended after discovery of 'unauthorised computer' in passport office basement
Summary
Three civil servants were suspended after a security probe revealed an unauthorised computer in the basement of the Department of Foreign Affairs passport service offices. One of the suspended staff, a senior porter with decades of service, was dismissed because he was found to have used other employees' credentials to log into the highly sensitive Automated Passport System (APS) database. The WRC hearing detailed that the porter had repeatedly accessed the database using the login details of two other civil servants, a practice that the department deemed a sustained breach of IT policy. The porter denied knowingly breaching the system, but the department's secretary‑general ruled that his actions were damaging to the State and could not be remedied by transfer or demotion. The hearing concluded with an adjudicator set to issue a decision in writing.
Who, what, where, when and why
What: Report matter: Civil servants suspended after discovery of 'unauthorised computer' in passport office basement. Procedural stage: trial
When:
- September 2023 Hearing Or Sentence
- April 2022 Other
- 11 March Other
- 2024-12-18 Publication
Places mentioned
- Mount Street
Topics
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