Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Has there ever been a complaint about the security risk of any airport police or customs officer? The Minister is missing the point. Members of the Garda and Defence Forces do not need to strip off and divest themselves of all their work clothing in order to do their job when they go through the security and X-ray machines, which the airport police and customs staff have to do. It is making their job incredibly difficult. They were always security-compliance exempt because they are under that law enforcement category.

If a full background check is sufficient to exclude gardaí and members of the Defence Forces from having to do that, why not the airport police, customs officials and immigration officers who quite often in a time-sensitive way have to move airside and back to the other side of the airport? The DAA - Dublin Airport and Cork Airport - has passed all the security audits that have been done. The findings of one of those are due to be released later this month. From where is the threat coming? It does not add up. Can we not have a level playing field for all?

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