Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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141. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he is concerned regarding travel delays caused by staffing shortages given the importance of Dublin Airport for business connectivity and trade. [18629/22]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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daa has the statutory responsibility to operate, manage and develop Dublin Airport including all the operations associated with security screening at the Airport.

I have met with and had briefings from the daa CEO Dalton Philips and other senior staff over recent weeks where I expressed concern at the situation and the impact the delays were having on passengers. I have established a daily crisis management meeting between the Department and daa to monitor the situation.

The company has undertaken significant work to address and mitigate the security queue times at Dublin Airport. It has put in place a number of measures including stepping up recruitment efforts; redeployment of staff where possible; establishing a senior management taskforce; opening security lanes on a 24/7 basis and enhancing communications with passengers. These measures are having a positive impact on passenger queue times at the airport. This positive impact was seen over the Easter weekend, even as passenger numbers reached around 200,000 departing passengers between Good Friday and Easter Monday. The vast majority of passengers went through security in under 40 minutes, and no passenger missed their flight as a result of security delays.

On 19 April daa published revised advice for passengers following consistently improved queuing times over the last few weeks, including over Easter weekend. Passengers are now advised to arrive at the airport up to 2.5 hours before the departure of short-haul flights to Europe and the UK. The recommendation for long-haul passengers remains up to 3.5 hours.

While recruitment of new staff required is ongoing, over 100 new security staff were employed recently and this should assist in the alleviation of the excessive queue times over the coming period. These security staff are being deployed following the necessary training.

Dublin Airport is planning for a significant increase in passenger volumes over the coming months. It does note that this increase will present a considerable challenge. Management is reviewing the experience of the last number of weeks to further develop and refine measures to cater for the increased passenger numbers. I will continue to monitor the situation over the coming days and weeks and continue to engage with daa to ensure the positive impacts seen recently are maintained for passengers using Dublin Airport.