Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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1566. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the estimated capital and current costs that would be required if his Departmental officials were present at Dublin Airport between the hours of 8am and 11pm, seven days a week. [13350/23]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine provides a thirteen and a half hour service, seven days a week in Dublin Airport. Department officials are present between 7:30am and 9:00pm, Monday to Sunday. They provide a range of services including inspections on imports from non-EU countries and compliance checks on pets before they can move freely in Ireland.

Travellers coming from outside the EU with their pets are required to notify my officials in advance their arrival. If they choose to arrive outside of operating hours, an on-call service is available through a private operator who conducts compliance checks on behalf of the department. A small number of travellers use this out-of-hours service annually.

The opening hours of the DAFM operation at Dublin Airport are kept under review. Whilst an extension to opening hours would not have any capital implications, it would have current cost implications, requiring my Department to employ more staff at an increased cost to the Exchequer. As to date, my Department has not received any formal request to extend the opening hours at Dublin Airport, and therefore an evaluation of additional staffing needs and associated costs has not been undertaken.