Major security upgrades are set to take place in Leinster House to fortify the building in the coming days ahead of the historic visit of Joe Biden there next Thursday.
And in an attempt to make security more manageable on the day ordinary staff are being told to stay away from the venue unless they have urgent business in the Oireachtas. US Secret Service and special Garda units were seen swarming the complex all week as they performed intensive security sweeps and checks.
The visit of a sitting US President requires the highest level of security in the world and it is understood a US security official told a Leinster House counterpart that the systems in place in the Dail are “not up to scratch.” A number of deficiencies are believed to have been identified, including with the X-Ray and metal detector systems at the front gate and the postal scanning equipment.
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These machines were not fully operational and were turned off at some stages during the week. The metal detector machine settings are also normally set to a lower intensity than other machines, so as not to interfere with pacemakers or artificial hips.
The post room’s main scanning equipment has been intermittently out of order for some time, with hand-held devices being used instead. There were also concerns with the ‘badging machine’ which prints temporary IDs for visitors as it does not print pictures on its cards.
And the secondary machine in the newer Leinster House building, LH2000, was broken this week. There will be individual checks of all staff ID going in and out of the Oireachtas complex as an extra precaution.
On a normal day staff and journalists only need to wear the ID on a lanyard around their necks as they walk in or out. Politicians do not have to carry any ID, but this is being looked at for next week too.
A Leinster House security source told the Irish Mirror last night: “We were basically told the systems are not up to scratch. There are a number of areas they had concerns with, but we will address them and I believe we will make Leinster House completely safe in time for the most powerful man in the world’s visit next week.”
Official spokespeople were tight lipped on the security issues. A spokeswoman for Leinster House said: “We don’t comment on security matters.”
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