Ahern considering privatisation of passport control at ports and airports

MINISTER FOR Justice Dermot Ahern is considering the privatisation of passport control at Irish airports and ports.

He told the Dáil that the civilianisation of the service was also among the options being considered as he was questioned about delays of up to two hours for passengers travelling through Dublin airport because of an industrial relations “issue” over the withdrawal from immigration officers of a meal allowance worth just under €30 daily.

The Minister said he was “open to all options” and referred to civilianisation of the service “particularly in the context of the desire to have as many gardaí doing normal Garda duties on the streets and fighting the issue of crime, which as I’ve said many times is my number one priority”.

He was responding to Fine Gael justice spokesman Charlie Flanagan, who said that “since before Christmas, a most serious situation has developed at Dublin airport that is damaging business and trade and commerce and tourism and the ordinary movement of people in this State, with queues of an hour-and-a-half and two hours at our principal airport. The situation is intolerable”.

Mr Ahern said he was “conscious” of the difficulties for passengers. “To a certain extent there is an issue in relation to a meal allowance which has been withdrawn but extra staff have been put into the Dublin airport location. There are now 142 gardaí, 15 more in very recent times,” he said. The Minister accepted that there “has been a detrimental perception” on occasion, but “on other occasions, people have come through and said there is no particular difficulty” at Dublin airport.

Mr Ahern said he told officials he was “open to looking at other ways of dealing with this issue out at Dublin airport and even looking at issues such as the privatisation of the control at Dublin airport. Because when you see that there’s 142 full-time gardaí who are out there on a regular basis, this is a resource that could perhaps be used elsewhere.”

“So I am looking at all options,” he said.

Mr Flanagan said he did not think he would agree with privatisation, but suggested the Minister “would consider a certain civilianisation of the process”, having an “immigration officer who needn’t necessarily be a fully-fledged member of the Garda Síochána”, but a garda aide or civilian immigration officer.

The Minister said “all of those options, including civilianisation will be looked at. I’ve an open mind in relation to it and these are the issues I have discussed with my officials, but primarily there are gardaí out there at the moment and they are doing a good job and they have the resources and the Garda Commissioner has dedicated more resources because of the anecdotal evidence.”

Fine Gael spokesman on integration Denis Naughten was “amazed” at the Minister’s comments about privatisation and the implications of the “significant powers” of immigration officers being “given to non-members of An Garda Síochána”.