Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy McDonald for raising what is such an important issue. The scenes at Dublin Airport that we all witnessed on our screens at the weekend are completely unacceptable. Passengers going through the airport should not have had to endure an experience like that and I can only imagine the stress, anxiety and anger that was caused to so many of them. Many of them had been saving long and hard for a well-earned holiday and, in too many instances, did not make their flight through absolutely no fault of their own. What we saw was unacceptable and it cannot be allowed to happen again.

It is the case the DAA has statutory responsibility for the running of Dublin Airport but of course, as a Government, we take a direct interest in this matter because of the impact it has on the people we represent and on Ireland's reputation, both domestically and internationally, and the importance for us as an island nation of having international connectivity and airports that are well run and well resourced and that meet the needs of the people.

These issues began to emerge in March and there was significant intervention at that point, which continued. In particular, the Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Deputy Naughton, had very regular meetings - every second day, in fact - for a period with the DAA to ensure this issue was properly addressed. To be fair, for the great bulk of that period, the issues were addressed and the types of scenes we witnessed at the weekend were not evident over that period. Since the weekend, there was a meeting yesterday involving the Minister for Transport, the Minister of State and the DAA's senior management to express the Government's deep frustration and unhappiness with the scenes we witnessed at the weekend. There was a further meeting this morning at which the DAA was asked to come forward with an operational plan to ensure we do not see scenes like this again, and to provide a reassurance to passengers going to Dublin Airport this coming weekend, which will be a busy, long weekend, that adequate resources are in place to ensure it runs as efficiently as possible.

As the Deputy knows, DAA senior management will appear before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications tomorrow. The Minister and the Minister of State have asked that the details of the operational plan be conveyed publicly and discussed at that meeting. Importantly, they have asked that there be an effective communications campaign in order that passengers who are relying on the services at Dublin Airport know exactly what is ahead of them and precisely how long they should allow to safely get through the various stages of check-in, security and so on.

The Deputy is correct to point out a voluntary severance scheme was operated by the DAA over the course of 2020 and into 2021, which was the authority's judgment as to the resources it would need for the period ahead. It was also in the context of a period when passenger levels had simply collapsed and the DAA was losing enormous sums weekly, and it proposed a severance scheme. In recent months, it has recruited several hundred staff. About 300 of the 370 additional security staff required have been recruited and about 170 of those are fully trained. The DAA has had more than 5,000 applications for the positions since the start of March.

It is important the public are given a reassurance that what we saw at the weekend does not happen again. The Government has reinforced that message to the DAA directly and the public will see tomorrow the details of what it is proposing operationally to ensure it does not happen again.

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