Cead mile failte? not at our banana republic airport..
Holidaymakers face summer passport control delay hell
THE Government tries to sell the country as a hi-tech hub but travellers arriving at Dublin Airport soon find out they are in Europe’s banana republic. They witness Ireland’s chronic inefficiency before they even get into the country as they have to queue – sometimes for hours – to get past passport control. With the busy summer season about to begin, families returning from their holidays face chaos if something is not done now. Failte Ireland is spending millions trying to attract tourists and when they get here they are forced to wait in long lines because most of the passport booths are closed. On April 15, visitors coming in through Terminal One had to wait up to two hours because only two were open while four others remained closed. First of all the Dublin Airport Authority is not to blame for the mess – it is the Department of Justice’s Naturalisation and Immigration Service which is in charge of passport control. But it is ironic that the DAA has been forced to deploy additional staff to manage the large queues in the passport hall because the Department is short of staff. Only in Ireland. Over the past few months, frustrated passengers, many with young children, have taken to social media to vent their anger at being greeted with lengthy lines. In a sense, Dublin Airport is a victim of its own success but instead of rising to the challenge, the State has failed to put measures in place to deal with a massive increase in the number of passengers. In 2016 it welcomed almost 28 million travellers and last month a record 2.5 million used the airport, a 12% increase on the same period last year. As of May 10, it had already welcomed almost 528,000 additional passengers so far this year. On Sunday night a colleague arriving from Glasgow had to stand in a long queue for more than half-an-hour before he could get through passport control. Fianna Fail foreign affairs spokesman Darragh O’brien has demanded more staff be deployed, having experienced the delays himself. He said: “I waited for almost an hour in a lengthy queue at immigration. “While the Minister has informed me directly that the maximum number of staff is on duty during times of peak arrival, this does not seem to be the case. Some of the very many people across the country that use the airport on a weekly basis to commute for work or business have shared their frustration that this is happening too regularly. “While there are a number of factors that may impact the length of time spent waiting for clearance at immigration, the number of personnel allocated to process the passports of those entering Ireland is simply not enough.” As the threat of terror attacks increases, greater scrutiny of passports could mean even longer delays as all travel documents must be scanned by immigration officers on an international database. In the past this was only done when suspicions were already raised about a passenger. To make matters worse the four Automatic Border Control gates at Terminal 1 which allowed passengers to skip queues and inspection booths have gone. They were introduced four years ago to speed up delays in the passport hall, which covers both EU and non-eu passport holders. With an estimated six million passengers set to go through the airport over the next few months, the family holiday might end up being a little longer than expected.
12% increase numbers in this passengerApril compared to last year 6m number of passengers expected to use airport over next few months