Dublin Airport ‘cannot guarantee chaotic scenes will not happen again’
Eamon Ryan said that there had been discussions about “how to manage lanes” within Dublin Airport, where the weekend saw over 1,000 people miss flights due to long queues at security.
The transport minister says the Daa cannot guarantee that this weekend will avoid the same chaos as last weekend.
Eamon Ryan, speaking on his way into this evening’s Cabinet meeting, said that the authority had told him at a meeting that it would do “everything in its power” to ensure that long queues and people missing flights was avoided, but that no guarantee had been given.
The Minister said that this did not absolve Daa of its responsibility to ensure people made their flights. He said that “one bad day had undermined everything”, but said that the summer period “will be tight”.
Mr Ryan said that there had been discussions about “how to manage lanes” within Dublin Airport, where the weekend saw over 1,000 people miss flights due to long queues at security.
The Daa has been blamed for offering "absolutely rubbish" contracts to workers which has resulted in chaos for passengers at Dublin Airport in recent days.
Thousands of passengers were forced to queue outside the terminal and waited for over four hours to check in on Sunday, with more than 1,000 people missing flights.
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett has said security staff are not being given the respect they deserve as the contracts being offered mean workers don't know how many hours they will be given each week.
He said the "absolute chaos and shambles" at Dublin Airport is the result "of the Daa making redundant hundreds of employees during the pandemic and then trying to replace them with people on absolutely rubbish, flexi, low paid contracts and that is at the heart of the chaos".
It comes as ministers are to continue daily engagement with Daa until issues at Dublin Airport are fully resolved.
Transport Minister Eamon Ryan and Minister of State with responsibility for international transport Hildegarde Naughton met with Dalton Phillips, Daa CEO, and senior officials this morning.
They received an update from Daa on their plans to manage the passenger experience this weekend and into the summer period. Daa advised on their plan to improve queue management; maximise the availability of staffing resources; and increase the number of security lanes at peak times.
Daa also updated Mr Ryan and Ms Naughton on how they intend to compensate passengers who have missed flights, with the Daa indicating that they are currently finalising operational arrangements.
Ministers have asked that Daa clearly communicate their plan, within the next 24 hours, to deliver a satisfactory experience for passengers departing from the airport this bank holiday weekend.
Mr Ryan and Ms Naughton emphasised the importance of restoring passenger confidence in Dublin airport.
SIPTU representatives highlighted the impact of inferior pay and conditions of employment for new Daa staff as a key factor in the current crisis at Dublin Airport at a meeting with Ms Naughton earlier today.
SIPTU Sector Organiser, Niall Phillips, said staff are doing their utmost under very difficult circumstances at Dublin Airport with many reporting being abused and in some cases, spat at by frustrated passengers.
Adding to this SIPTU TEAC Division Organiser, Karan O Loughlin, said: “If the aggression from passengers reported by Airport Search Unit staff in Dublin Airport had happen in the air, they would have been removed from the flight. Similar attitudes need to be adopted towards unacceptable behaviour towards ground staff if the airport authorities are serious about staff retention.”
Elsewhere, Social Democrat co-leader Catherine Murphy has strongly criticised Daa for engaging in a "race to the bottom" with regard to its recruitment policy and terms of employment.
Ms Murphy pointed out that the part-time contracts on offer mean that it is very difficult to get a second job as workers could be asked to work nighttime or daytime shifts each week.
"I also think there was a very generous wage subsidy scheme to keep critical employees in place and obviously there was a mindset here in terms of how the airport will be run into the future that has backfired badly."
She said a "sticking plaster approach" is not good enough and the authority must come up with proper solutions.
"The solution has to be in Dublin Airport, it has to be recruiting staff. It has to be a short-term measure for now, but it also has to have a more sustainable approach to recruitment."
The airport is to be hit with more than 1,000 compensation claims from passengers who missed flights and bosses have been told to come up with solutions by today.
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