Soldiers are being ordered on a round trip of more than 500km — to work as security at Dublin Airport, it has emerged.
We have learned that 40 soldiers from the 28th Infantry Battalion based at Finner Camp in Co Donegal are in Dublin today for special training — before being deployed to the crisis-ridden airport.
They leave Donegal at 6am today for a 520km round trip between their Ballyshannon camp and Dublin for the two-day training course on how to act as security at the nation’s main airport.
And once the Government gives the nod, they will then be deployed from Donegal to spend up to a week at a time at the airport.
The soldiers were sent for training after the Government announced last week that the Army was being put on standby to help with security at the airport following the recent delays – which led to thousands of passengers missing flights.
Sources have confirmed that some 120 Defence Forces personnel from the 2 Brigade are being trained for security duties at the airport this week – and most of them are from outside Dublin.
As well as personnel being sent from Finner Camp, soldiers are being deployed from Dundalk in Co Louth which is 80km away and Custume Barracks in Athlone, Co Westmeath – some 140km from the airport.
All the personnel will be put up in barracks in Dublin when they are working at the airport – but the soldiers still have no idea what they will be paid for the special duty.
It’s understood the military personnel are not being trained to search passengers going through security — but instead are being readied for static duty at gates and access points in the airport.
But it is hoped that will see permanent staff freed up to work on passenger screening – once the Army is called in.
And campaigners last night warned that they could come away with just €2.25 an hour extra for their work – and accused the Government of using military personnel to help out a private company.
Former Army Sergeant Major Noel O’Callaghan – who now campaigns for proper pay and conditions for Defence Forces personnel – said the soldiers would be nothing more than cheap labour for the Dublin Airport Authority.
He said the Army in Dublin was so under strength that the soldiers would have to come from outside the capital.
He said: “The reality is they will be coming from Donegal, they will be coming from Dundalk and they will be coming from Athlone.”
And he revealed that the Department of Defence had not told representative bodies PDFORRA and RACO what allowances the soldiers would be getting for their work at the airport – although he feared it could be as less than €3 an hour extra after tax.
“They will get €2.25 an hour for their shifts after all the tax is taken out,” he said.
And he added: “The airport is important to tourism and tourism is important to Ireland, I fully get that.
“But it is not a role of the Army to go in and bail out private companies.
“The reality is that the DAA laid off these workers.
“If 40,000 people book in for flights, they know they are going to have to have X amount of staff and they did nothing to rectify it.
“It has impacted on the people.
“Everyone is looking for the Army to go in and bail them out on €2.25 an hour.
“The Department of Defence still has not met with RACO or PDFORRA.
“The disrespect is coming at every level and our lads are being used as cheap labour.”
And a TD and former officer in the elite Army Ranger Wing yesterday warned that the deployment of military personnel to the airport could cause more problems than it solves.
Kildare South TD Cathal Berry warned that the lower rate of pay for soldiers could cause industrial unrest at the airport.
He told RTE’s The Week in Politics: “We know that there is quite a delicate industrial relations situation in Dublin Airport at the moment.
“If the troops were to go in, there is the risk of wider industrial action that might shut the entire airport down.
“Secondly, the military are completely strapped for people as it is.
“The military have been carrying a 20 per cent loss of people for the last number of years and that’s been clearly documented.
“Thirdly, if our armed forces are deployed to the airport it’s very, very clear that they won’t be getting the appropriate rate of pay that would be given to their civilian equivalent.”
A spokesperson for the Department was unavailable for comment last night.
READ NEXT:
Second woman killed after shark attack in same popular tourist resort
Arrest made after man, 50s, left in critical condition after Kildare assault
Professor Luke O'Neill in grim restrictions prediction as pandemic 'not over'
'Genetically compromised' baby born to sibling parents pair dies after birth
