DELAYS EXPERIENCED at passport checkpoints at Dublin airport should be handled by Garda management and not staff at the facility, the Garda Representative Association (GRA) has said.
“Our members are discharging their duties in the immigration bureau as required,” a spokesman for the GRA said. “Delays are an issue that should be addressed by Garda management.”
The comment comes after business group Ibec wrote to the Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy to complain that lengthy waits at immigration were causing disruption to business people.
It is understood delays at passport control began six weeks ago as a result of a dispute involving officers from the Garda National Immigration Bureau stationed at the airport. The dispute centres on cuts to expenses paid to officers.
Ibec said that delays of between one and three hours are being experienced by some passengers passing through the airport and that many officers are completing “near forensic” examinations of all passports.
A spokeswoman for Dublin Airport Authority said there have been difficulties with queuing at the immigration point, even though airport traffic in January was down 8 per cent on 2008.
“The delays have been intermittent and unpredictable since before Christmas,” she said.
It is understood that the Assistant Garda Commissioner for Immigration Derek Byrne visited Dublin airport yesterday to discuss the matter, but a Garda spokesman could not confirm this. He said Garda management has been directed to ensure the “expeditious movement” of passengers through immigration controls.
