Airport 'aggressively' recruiting security staff to meet passenger demand

Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) needs to up security staffing levels by 50% to meet high demand from passengers, it has been confirmed. 

There were long delays over the weekend in particular, with reports of some passengers missing flights due to hold ups as they attempted to board their flights. 

The DAA Chief Executive Officer said they are "recruiting aggressively", following the recent reports of lengthy queues to get through security at Dublin Airport.

There are currently 600 officers in the security division, but staff levels need to reach 900, he said.

Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, he said there is "very significant pent-up demand". This demand has been much higher than experts anticipated, he added.

The CEO said there are 15,000 extra passengers per day passing through the airport at the moment. This is 30% higher than forecasted number.

"We are grappling to deal with this very high demand at a time when the labour market is incredibly tight," he said.

Mr Philips said one delay is the intensive background security checks required to be carried out on a person after they are recruited and before they can start work.

"You have to have enhanced background checks for all employees in an airport," he explained.

"It's essentially like garda vetting plus plus, so it's very rigorous."

He said that this combined with the challenges presented by Covid-19 illness creates a "perfect storm" for staffing levels.

In response to criticism of working conditions offered to employees, Mr Philips stressed that the starting rate of pay for security workers is 35% higher than the national minimum wage.

He said contracts are a minimum of 20 hours, but up to 40 hours per week. All staff are currently being asked "to do as many hours as they possibly can for obvious reasons," he explained.

"In the industry, the reason why it's not guaranteed 40 is because as you can imagine, there's a lot of variability, peaks and troughs, between not only the day in the week, but obviously the season between winter and summer," he said of working arrangements.

Passengers travelling from airports in Ireland have been advised to arrive up to three hours before their scheduled flights, to ensure they have ample time to make flights, should there be long delays.