The Government's failure to plan for the recovery of Ireland's tourism sector has come home to roost in a fairly catastrophic fashion. Families are missing out on holidays because of long delays in issuing passports, hotels are charging between €350 and €400 for one night and now the State's main airport is experiencing chaos. Dublin Airport on Sunday was a nightmare for those caught up in the mayhem. People waited hours in queues that stretched outside the terminal buildings. Passengers received no communication, updates or explanations for the delays. Indeed, many had not even made it to the security check before their flights took off without them. More than 1,000 people missed their flights. Big money had to be forked out for hotel rooms, connecting flights were missed and would-be holidaymakers had their holidays ruined. Now, confusion surrounding what any compensation package will cover is sowing further frustration. This is not only about tourism and holidays. As a small island nation, we rely heavily on our airports to ensure our connectivity with the rest of the world. We simply cannot afford this chaos. Last week's events at the airport risk damaging Ireland's international reputation for international business and investment.

All of this has its roots in the laying off 1,000 workers by the Dublin Airport Authority, DAA, during the pandemic and the subsequent lack of workforce planning as international travel reopened. At the time of those lay-offs, SIPTU's Jerry Brennan told the airport authority, "you will need to be hiring people because your queues will be extending through the carparks". What foresight. It seems he was the only person with any foresight. Yet, as we speak, Dublin Airport is still only at 70% of pre-Covid staffing levels. How can we expect the country’s main airport to operate at such low staff levels at the busiest time of the year? It was entirely foreseeable, after two years of lockdowns, that people would be very eager to get away on holidays again. Sunday’s chaos did not come out of the blue. There were warnings in the major delays in March and April. What action, if any, did the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, take then to get ahead of all this? Did he meet the airport authority back in March to work out solutions and prevent an escalation of the problem? He is now calling for solutions in the wake of chaos. He has shown up again a day late and a dollar short.

Teip thubaisteach ar thaobh an Rialtais agus an DAA a bhí sa phraiseach iomlán ag Aerfort Bhaile Átha Cliath ar an Domhnach. Ní hamháin gur chuir sé isteach go mór ar thaistealaithe ach rinne sé dochar do cháil idirnáisiúnta na hÉireann. An bhfuil muid ag súil le níos mó den chineál ruaille buaille sin in Aerfort Bhaile Átha Cliath an deireadh seachtaine seo?

Of course the Dublin Airport Authority should be held responsible for its part in this mess but let us be very clear on this. When the operation of the most important airport in the State breaks down, it is the business of the Government to get ahead of that. The public is in disbelief at this fiasco and those planning to travel through Dublin Airport this bank holiday weekend are now very worried. Can the Minister guarantee today that we are not facing more chaos at Dublin Airport this weekend?

I thank Deputy McDonald for raising what is such an important issue. The scenes at Dublin Airport that we all witnessed on our screens at the weekend are completely unacceptable. Passengers going through the airport should not have had to endure an experience like that and I can only imagine the stress, anxiety and anger that was caused to so many of them. Many of them had been saving long and hard for a well-earned holiday and, in too many instances, did not make their flight through absolutely no fault of their own. What we saw was unacceptable and it cannot be allowed to happen again.

It is the case the DAA has statutory responsibility for the running of Dublin Airport but of course, as a Government, we take a direct interest in this matter because of the impact it has on the people we represent and on Ireland's reputation, both domestically and internationally, and the importance for us as an island nation of having international connectivity and airports that are well run and well resourced and that meet the needs of the people.

These issues began to emerge in March and there was significant intervention at that point, which continued. In particular, the Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Deputy Naughton, had very regular meetings - every second day, in fact - for a period with the DAA to ensure this issue was properly addressed. To be fair, for the great bulk of that period, the issues were addressed and the types of scenes we witnessed at the weekend were not evident over that period. Since the weekend, there was a meeting yesterday involving the Minister for Transport, the Minister of State and the DAA's senior management to express the Government's deep frustration and unhappiness with the scenes we witnessed at the weekend. There was a further meeting this morning at which the DAA was asked to come forward with an operational plan to ensure we do not see scenes like this again, and to provide a reassurance to passengers going to Dublin Airport this coming weekend, which will be a busy, long weekend, that adequate resources are in place to ensure it runs as efficiently as possible.

As the Deputy knows, DAA senior management will appear before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications tomorrow. The Minister and the Minister of State have asked that the details of the operational plan be conveyed publicly and discussed at that meeting. Importantly, they have asked that there be an effective communications campaign in order that passengers who are relying on the services at Dublin Airport know exactly what is ahead of them and precisely how long they should allow to safely get through the various stages of check-in, security and so on.

The Deputy is correct to point out a voluntary severance scheme was operated by the DAA over the course of 2020 and into 2021, which was the authority's judgment as to the resources it would need for the period ahead. It was also in the context of a period when passenger levels had simply collapsed and the DAA was losing enormous sums weekly, and it proposed a severance scheme. In recent months, it has recruited several hundred staff. About 300 of the 370 additional security staff required have been recruited and about 170 of those are fully trained. The DAA has had more than 5,000 applications for the positions since the start of March.

It is important the public are given a reassurance that what we saw at the weekend does not happen again. The Government has reinforced that message to the DAA directly and the public will see tomorrow the details of what it is proposing operationally to ensure it does not happen again.

The Minister said there was a significant political intervention in March and April, when these problems emerged. I have to tell him, that intervention did not succeed in its purpose and Sunday showed us the evidence of that. The airport is still operating understaffed, at 70% of its pre-Covid strength. The management of the Dublin Airport Authority, it seems to me, grossly misjudged what the capacity requirements would be as travel reopened, as was always going to be the case.

I must say I do not hear anything from the Minister, as a Minister in government, that would reassure me or reassure the public that in fact the airport authority or the Government have got on top of this issue. I ask the Minister again to perhaps be more categoric and reassuring for the public. Will he tell us we are not going to face scenes such as those we saw on Sunday again? Is he satisfied that is the case? Is he satisfied the airport authority can and will mobilise the required numbers of staff, including full use of overtime, over the coming bank holiday weekend?

I thank the Deputy. The message from the Government could not be clearer. The DAA needs to do whatever it takes to ensure this issue is addressed and that we do not see those kinds of scenes again, especially on the forthcoming bank holiday weekend. That is why the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, reinforced to the DAA executives the imperative to get on top of this because it is just not fair. It is not fair on the members of the public who rely on the services at the airport to go about their business, travel abroad, see loved ones, return home after a trip to Ireland or go on business abroad. They should be assured that if they turn up in good time for their flight, the airport will do its job and get them through the various stages and get them on board. There was a detailed discussion today about what is required to ensure that is achieved, including measures to improve queue management and maximising the availability of staffing resources to increase the number of security lanes at peak times. The DAA is now finalising those operational arrangements and we expect to hear much more about them in the next 24 hours and of course the authority will appear before the Oireachtas joint committee. The message from the Government, as conveyed by the Minister and Minister of State today and by me here in the Dáil could not be clearer, namely, the DAA must ensure this is not repeated.

I also raise the outrageous delays in Dublin Airport over the weekend. Clearly, these have had a devastating effect for so many people. We know 1,000 people have missed their flights and that people missed out on job opportunities, work-related travel, funerals, weddings, holidays and so much more. Clearly, this is a huge issue of consumer rights and a huge issue for those passengers who were so seriously inconvenienced over the weekend.

However, it is not just a matter of poor planning by the DAA, although that is clearly a serious issue in itself, but also points to two broader issues for which the Government must take responsibility. The first is a failure of our national aviation policy, specifically, a failure to ensure effective distribution of flights among our airports, because it is not just about Dublin Airport and we are conscious many people are now looking to other airports like those in Cork or Farranfore. They are looking at airports where there is capacity and seeing the contrast between them and the chaos we saw at the weekend at Dublin Airport. It is, therefore, about a national aviation policy that must take into account distribution of workload among our regional airports.

It is also, at a broader level, about workers' rights. That is something our transport spokesperson, Deputy Duncan Smith, has been raising consistently for some time now. We saw the DAA lay off staff during Covid in significant numbers and we saw the Government failing to put in a no-redundancy clause as a condition of the State supports that were being granted. We know the DAA took advantage of those supports, such as the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, that comes to an end today, yet there was no conditionality around workers' rights in that. We heard this morning from an anonymous worker at Dublin Airport about the serious issues around workplace conditions and pay that pertain for the many staff at Dublin Airport. Many of them took the brunt of understandable passenger frustration at the weekend and so many of them are in such a low-paid sector. The real concern we have is we have seen Dublin Airport become a low-cost airport, as the preponderance of low-cost airlines has dominated and we have seen a race to the bottom as a result.

I am asking the Minister first to reassure passengers that we will not see the same chaotic scenes at the airport this weekend. Will he also assure the House there will be a proper and effective national aviation strategy put in place to ensure this imbalance between one airport and our other airports does not occur again? Will the Government also take steps to ensure the serious staffing issues and the low-pay conditions for so many staff at Dublin Airport are addressed and that we see better conditions for staff and a genuine commitment to move to a living wage, as we saw in our Labour Party Bill on a living wage?

Last week, we welcomed the Tánaiste's announcement that the Government will introduce legislation on a living wage. We are conscious that Ireland has a serious problem with low pay, with one in five of the workforce low paid. It is not just about Dublin Airport, but clearly that was a major factor in the staffing shortfall that led to such chaotic scenes for so many at the weekend.

The decision of the DAA in May 2020 to embark on a voluntary severance scheme was against the backdrop at the time of a collapse in the aviation industry and the commercial reality that it was losing an enormous amount of money daily. It proposed a voluntary severance scheme and there was significant uptake of the scheme. It is also fair to say that the recovery in aviation has exceeded the expectations of the majority of commentators, and I believe it has exceeded the DAA's own expectations, to be frank. That is why in recent weeks, as manifested and crystallised at the weekend in such a terrible way, it simply did not have the level of staffing resources that it needed. It is a good thing that aviation has recovered much more quickly than was forecast, but it is important that the DAA upholds the integrity of the security arrangements at the airport to the highest possible standards. Its first priority is to ensure the safety of the passengers who are going through the airport and, indeed, those who work in the airport.

There has been significant interest in the recruitment campaign. I heard what the Deputy said about terms and conditions but more than 5,000 applications since the beginning of March indicates a high level of interest in the security roles that are available. It is important to point out that the terms and conditions of employment are negotiated and agreed on a collective basis between the DAA and the trade unions representing the staff there.

Regarding the Government's wider aviation policy, we have a policy that supports the regions. There is a regional airports programme. Just last month, the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, announced capital funding not just for the airports that traditionally avail of the regional airports programme and of the public service obligation, PSO, such as Donegal, Kerry and Ireland West Airport Knock, but also included for the first time the State regional airports at Cork and Shannon in the regional airports programme. Both of them benefited from capital funding, which I believe was the correct decision. By virtue of the size of passenger numbers at those airports, they are now eligible for funding under the programme. It is anticipated there will also be a round of operational grant aid under the regional airports programme. Almost €22 million is available in operational support during this year to support measures such as air traffic control, fire services and security-related operations at airports. There will be invitations to apply for that operational aid and it will issue to eligible airports towards the latter half of the year.

The Government's strategy is to support regional airports, including the State regional airports, which all provide an excellent quality of service and provide competition for Dublin Airport, which is needed too.

I thank the Minister for his response on the aviation strategy as it relates to airports such as Shannon, Cork and Farranfore. I also heard what he said about the recovery of aviation. However, this was not unpredictable. Airlines sold flights, so the number of people who would be flying out of Dublin Airport last weekend was utterly predictable. Clearly, there was a serious problem, a serious failure of workforce planning.

In terms of the issue of staff conditions and pay, the trade unions at Dublin Airport have been raising this for some time. There is a serious issue again with retention of staff and that is related to the pay levels and the conditions that apply to staff at the airport. That has to be addressed to ensure we do not see these shortfalls on an ongoing basis. I repeat our concern about Dublin Airport effectively becoming a low-cost airport at a time when inflation is rising above 8% today and there is a cost-of-living crisis that is really biting into so many people's pockets and incomes. That is why the Labour Party has been saying that Ireland needs a pay rise and why we have been pushing for enactment of a Bill that would transform the minimum wage into a living wage. We call on the Government to adopt the principle in our Bill. That would bring about a much quicker transformation, a much speedier increase in the incomes people earn and would address some of the issues with low pay that are affecting staff numbers in Dublin Airport and in so many other places around the country.

The DAA has major obligations as an employer. It now has a duty to ensure that it reaches a full staffing complement in order to ensure the safe and efficient running of Dublin Airport and Cork Airport, which also comes under the remit of the DAA. That is why it is in the process of a significant recruitment campaign, which has attracted a lot of interest. It has offered existing security staff contracts with a minimum of 30 hours per week. The contract requires staff to be available to work 40 hours across a 24-7 roster, with employees notified 30 days in advance of their next four-week schedules. In reality, most staff work more than the guaranteed minimum hours, and overtime is available. Permanent security staff are employed on a pensionable and secure basis, and all the DAA arrangements are collectively bargained for.

On the Deputy's wider point in respect of pay, there are, as she knows, negotiations under way on public pay in Ireland. That will impact on 365,000 public servants across the country. I hope we will be able to reach a successful conclusion on that matter in the next short number of weeks. That is important not only from a public expenditure and an industrial relations point of view but also from the point of view of the thousands of workers who provide essential services to us all.