PASSENGERS HAVE BEEN complaining about the perceived unnecessarily lengthy waiting times for passport control at Dublin Airport.
Earlier today, a number of passengers complained via social media that the queues being seen were unacceptably long.
Passport control at Dublin Airport has only recently been taken over from the gardaí by the Department of Justice body the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS).
Dublin woman Dee O’Connor was travelling from Italy to Dublin this morning following a family holiday. A day that started poorly with a flight delayed by two hours in sweltering conditions didn’t get much better upon arrival at Dublin terminal one.
“We took one look at Passport Control and said ‘this isn’t our day’,” she said.
We were in one queue and it took about 40 minutes. My brother was in the next queue and it was another 15. They were asking all sorts of questions of the guy in front, even rang to see where he was staying.
“To me it just seems unnecessary,” she added.
While Dee’s wait was less than an hour, others have complained in recent days and weeks of even longer waits to get through passport control.
DAA (Dublin Airport Authority), the airport’s controlling body, told TheJournal.ie that passport control is the “sole responsibility of INIS”.
“We work closely with INIS to provide daily passenger volumes and we provide customer service agents to help manage the queuing areas in both terminals and help passengers get through the egates,” a spokesperson said.
“90% of passengers are cleared through immigration in a matter of minutes according to the DAA,” a spokesperson for the Department of Justice said.
From time to time particularly when flights do not arrive on schedule there can be delays but immigration officers work as efficiently as possible in carrying out their sensitive and important work to ensure passengers are not inconvenienced.
Currently the airport is experiencing the height of its summer season, with about 80,000-100,000 passengers arriving and departing the airport on a daily basis.
There are three separate Passport Control entry points at Dublin airport – two in the older Terminal One, and a separate processing area in the larger, newer Terminal Two.
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