Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I reiterate that this can never happen again. I have had daily meetings with the DAA and I met with the chair of the DAA and with the SIPTU trade union because I know staff are under huge pressure there at the moment. I agree with the Chairman in regard to ensuring that passengers are not outside in the rain and that cover has to be provided for them, and I am categoric on that. Yes, those in the DAA are under pressure with staffing, particularly security staffing, which requires experience, specialised training and expertise in that area. What they really need to do is communicate with the public and reassure the travelling public that people will be able to make their flights safely and with ease of access. There may be some queueing but people will be moved through as quickly as possible. For anything they need to do now, they need to start doing it in order to ramp up their resources. If that means going out to a private company to help them with managing queues and to relieve their own staff on those duties, that needs to be done.