The Chief Executive of Dublin Airport has refused to comment in person on the unfolding queuing crisis that happened on his watch.
Outgoing Chief Executive of the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) Dalton Philips did not reply in person to The Star - despite repeated efforts by us to contact him directly amid growing public outrage on Monday.
But in a later interview, the DAA’s spokesman did admit to us that the company has “let the country down.”
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The Star made repeated requests to DAA for Mr Philips himself to comment on the issue, before a spokesman said that he is “not available for interview unfortunately.”
We later called to the airport chief’s plush home in Co Wicklow, where his wife said that her husband was quite accessible - and would likely comment if contacted through his spokespersons.
“I would go through his spokespeople. He’s really always open for commenting.”
“He’s doing his very best,” she said.
“He will want to do his very best, that’s the kind of guy he is. If you ask anyone that’s what they're going to say. He doesn't disappear in the midst of things,” she said.
Following the polite conversation The Star promptly left Mr Philips' property - and was subsequently contacted by the DAA’s spokesman Kevin Cullinane, who complained about our attempt to approach Mr Philips directly.
“Calling out to his private house is out of bounds,” he said, despite us receiving no complaint from Mr Philips' wife when we spoke to her.
Mr Cullinane added that his boss Mr Philips has been at “multiple meetings trying to resolve this situation.”
And he claimed that Mr Philips, who is moving onto a new position in September, was at work in the airport since the early hours of the morning.
“He has been at work since the crack of dawn this morning. You would find him at his office five or six days a week,” he said.
He also insisted that Mr Philips is readily available to speak to media.
“He’s one of the most amenable CEOs and is often available for comment and for media,” he said.
But when pressed if we could speak to Mr Philips, Mr Cullinane said his boss was not available to us or any other media organisation.
“He’s under considerable time pressure to send a report to the Minister. We are burning the midnight oil here,” he said.
The DAA has been asked to bring about a report of solutions to Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan and junior Minister Hildegarde Naughton by Tuesday - after over 1,000 passengers missed their flights amid the chaos at the airport on Sunday.
Asked if Mr Philips, who is set to take up a new job at Greencore Group in September would now consider stepping down from his role sooner - Mr Cullinane said he would not.
“The question doesn’t arise because he previously announced he was leaving the organisation in September for Greencore,” he said.
Asked if the DAA is embarrassed by the lengthy queues outside Terminal One and Two on Sunday, Mr Cullinane was frank and said the company has “let the country down.”
“We’ve apologised unreservedly to passengers for having to experience lengthy queues.
“It’s not something we want to see and we know that we let ourselves down, we let the passengers down and we let the country down.
“We don't want to have a repeat of that,” he said.
However there are growing concerns of a repeat as an estimated 100,000 passengers are expected to come through Dublin Airport over the Bank Holiday weekend.
The DAA is now under increasing pressure to bring proposals to the government to resolve the crisis - with the Minister for Transport vowing to meet with management every day this week.
And when asked if he could assure the public that such a crisis won’t be repeated next weekend - Mr Cullinane said:
“That has our full focus since yesterday and it’s consuming everyone in management now that we make sure that that doesn’t happen (again).
“We want people to have a top class passenger experience .
“I can’t say there hasn’t been challenges, but we’ve been ramping up since the pandemic and making steady progress.
“On Sunday we tripped up and we put our hands up for it and said we got it wrong.
He added that it was now DAA’s “complete and utter focus” to resolve the crowding issues and to put a plan in place to prevent further problems as soon as possible.
Asked if and when Mr Philips might be available to speak on the issue himself, Mr Cullinane said his boss might be free to speak in the coming days.
“Once we get over the challenges of today and deadlines for tomorrow we would be more than happy to oblige.
“But right now there has been significant political attention and that has to be our first challenge here - to get things right.
“That’s his priority right now,” he said.
Mr Cullinane’s comments come after Transport Minister Eamon Ryan spoke to The Star not long after the meeting with Mr Philips took place.
Asked about what was said at the meeting, Minister Ryan said: “It happened earlier this morning. It was made very clear to them the unacceptability of what’s happened.”
Meanwhile passengers did face further queues at Dublin Airport on Monday morning - after many of those who missed their flights on Sunday tried to get another flight out.
Speaking as public anger continued, Taoiseach Micheál Martin ruled out deploying the army to prevent a repeat of chaotic scenes at Dublin Airport.
Mr Martin was speaking to reporters in Brussels on Monday evening and said it was “unacceptable” that one thousand people had missed their flight over the weekend.
"People should not be treated in that way.
“There will be daily meetings between the Department of Transport and the DAA. The Government is looking for a very clear plan to ensure that this type of thing doesn't happen again.
“It has to be done now to improve the operational efficiency at Dublin Airport.”
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