A leading travel expert has issued advice to Irish passengers travelling from Dublin Airport after "disgraceful" delays in recent days.
People reported the "worst queues they've seen yet" from Dublin Airport on Saturday morning as thousands jetted abroad from Ireland over the weekend.
From around 5.30am, passengers said that the airport was "mobbed" and warned others to give themselves plenty of time to get through security.
The situation was even worse on Sunday when there were “chaotic scenes” as many passengers missed flights due to lengthy queues.
And the “disgraceful” delays continued into the evening, with one passenger saying just two security lanes out of 10 were open at 7.50pm.
A spokesman for daa apologised for the delays and said "recruitment, training and background security checks" for new staff were having an impact on the length of time it is taking passengers to get through security.
Expert Eoghan Corry explained the situation at Dublin Airport, including why the queues at security are so long, as well his advice for people flying from the airport soon.
"Previously, alarm bells would start going off, an internal alarm system would start going off, if a queue went about 20 minutes and if it went above 30 minutes, senior management were contacted," he told RTE's Today with Claire Byrne programme.
"What we've seen over the last few days is that more than 30 minutes is pretty much the norm.
He then outlined the reason behind the delays.
"Dublin Airport says there is a confluence of factors here, they went through the redundancy programme during Covid when a lot of staff were given packages and the recruitment process for replacing them was slowed down by a change in regulation on January 1," he said,
"Security clearance...has delayed the deployment of about 100 extra people that have come in.
"And of course, the big issue that is haunting businesses, once people cry off sick from Covid it can seriously hinder the service and Dublin Airport is no different."
There is "absolutely no doubt" that people should arrive at the airport extra early in order to ensure they don't miss their flights, Mr Corry added.
"Two hours [in advance] is the advice for a European flight, three hours for transatlantic flights, and that wasn't proving adequate over the weekend," he said.
"It's not just the 40-minute queue at security, it's also the problems that are coming up at baggage drop off and at airport check-in as well.
"The two hours is probably not adequate, people should probably come a little bit earlier, but asking people to come to the airport earlier comes with a set of problems in itself.
"It will hinder people going for a flight in the not too distant future, that's really what's been happening today, particularly after the adverse publicity over the weekend.
"Normally Terminal 1 would be a longer security queue but at the moment, for instance, it's only 15 minutes in Terminal 1 and 35 minutes in Terminal 2, that makes it quite unpredictable.
"There's a rush jour as well you can keep your eye on as well, it's 7am until 9am in the morning, a disproportionate number of flights take off at that time so that's when it's going to be busiest.
"It should be quieter later in the day but there will be rostering to make allowances for those as well."
READ MORE: Dublin Airport passengers report 'mobbed' scenes and 'crazy' queues
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