Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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206. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if his attention has been drawn to the delays that businesses in Dublin Airport are experiencing with the new enhanced background checking system and the impact that this is having on their ability to successfully recruit new staff; and his plans to address this issue. [10619/22]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Arrangements were put in place to implement enhanced background checking arrangements for certain aviation employees from 1 January 2022 in line with updated European regulatory requirements.

The updated regulation adds a security intelligence check to the existing requirement for a criminal history check as well as increasing the frequency of the checks for existing employees. The checks are undertaken by the relevant employer informed by criminal history information and a security intelligence indicator provided by An Garda Síochána.

While enhanced background checks are an important part of the recruitment process for a significant number of aviation staff, the processing times for the provision of the supporting material are a matter for An Garda Síochána.