Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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488. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality when it is planned to install self-scanning passport machines at the passport gate in Cork Airport to ease passenger congestion. [15588/18]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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A national framework contract for the supply and installation of Automatic Border Control 'eGates' at the Irish State's ports of entry was signed on 17 July 2017. The first phase of the project has seen the installation of 20 eGates at Dublin Airport (10 gates each in Terminal 1 and Terminal 2).

The eGates offer certain categories of arriving passengers (passport holders from the European Economic Area and Switzerland who are over 18 years of age and hold a modern, chipped passport) a "self-service" type channel to clear immigration control.

In their first four months of operation, over 1 million passengers have successfully used the eGates at Dublin Airport. The Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) aims to further improve the service and increase the numbers of passengers using this secure entry channel.

Under the contract, additional e-Gates may be installed at Dublin Airport and at other ports of entry, should it make operational and financial sense to do so. INIS will consider the feasibility of extending the programme to other ports of entry in future. This will be done in consultation with An Garda Síochána, who have responsibility for frontline immigration controls at airports and ports outside of Dublin Airport and with the relevant airport/port authority. These considerations will be based on examining a number of factors, such as passenger volumes, passenger profile and predicted eGate usage numbers at the proposed expansion locations.