Chaotic scenes at Dublin Airport 'completely unacceptable', says McGrath

Passengers making their way through Dublin Airport on Tuesday in the wake of chaotic scenes at the weekend.  Picture: Niall Carson/PA

The chaotic scenes which occurred at Dublin Airport at the weekend were “completely unacceptable” Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath has said.

Taking Leaders’ Questions on behalf of the Government, Mr McGrath said that the Daa must do all it can to ensure such scenes don’t happen again.

“The scenes we all witnessed on our screens at Dublin Airport are completely unacceptable — and the passengers who were going through the airport should not have had to endure an experience like that,” he said.

And I can only imagine the stress and the anxiety and indeed the anger that was caused to so many of them.

“What we saw was unacceptable, and it cannot be allowed to happen again,” he added.

He said the Government does take a direct interest in this matter because of the impact it has on the people we represent and indeed on Ireland's reputation, both domestically and internationally.

Mr McGrath said the issues behind the chaos began to emerge back in March, saying there was significant political intervention — in particular by junior minister Hildegarde Naughton who had regular meetings, every second day with the Daa to ensure that this issue was properly addressed. 

Mr McGrath said that, to be fair, for the great bulk of that period of time, those issues were agreed.

The Daa has been asked to provide a reassurance to the passengers departing from Dublin Airport this weekend that there are adequate resources in place to ensure that it runs as efficiently as possible, Mr McGrath said.

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald said the Government's failure to plan for the recovery of Ireland's tourism sector has come home to roost in a fairly catastrophic fashion at the weekend.

She said families are missing out on holidays because of long delays in issuing passports. 

She said hotels now charge between €350 and €400 for one night. And now the state's main airport has experienced chaos.

“Dublin Airport on Sunday was a nightmare for those caught up in the mayhem,” she said. "People wasted hours in queues that stretched outside the terminal buildings. 

Passengers received no communications, no updates, or explanations for the delays. Indeed, many hadn't even made it to the security check before their flights took off without them.

Ms McDonald said that more than 1,000 people missed their flights. 

All of this has its roots in the laying off of 1,000 workers by the top of an airport authority during the pandemic and the subsequent lack of workforce planning as international travel reopened at the time of those layoffs, she said.