Dublin Airport was down 37 security workers last weekend, including 17 trainees who were rostered to work despite not being properly certified, leading to queuing chaos for thousands of passengers.
Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) CEO Dalton Philips told the Oireachtas Transport Committee that issues with the rostering system accounted for close to half of the absences.
But Mr Philips admitted even if the 37 officers had worked last weekend, the airport was still more than 20 officers "behind where we needed to be".
The plan presented to Government by the DAA yesterday sets out that 40 additional staff - including 30 trainees - will be deployed to deal with the crowds.
Mr Philips insisted that the issues with the rostering system was an "anomaly" that has "since been resolved".
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However, responding to a grilling from Fine Gael TD Kieran O'Donnell, who is chair of the committee, Mr Philips admitted that if staff were to call in sick this weekend, there would not be a contingency in place for someone to cover their shift, saying the airport was "running on fine margins" in terms of staff.
"If somebody calls [in sick] at 2am... no we don't (have cover)," the DAA CEO said.
Responding to the revelation, Mr O'Donnell said: "I'm amazed with that type of planning. Surely in the circumstances you've learned from last weekend, you will have people on standby in the event of people, for whatever reason, are unable to attend work."
Fianna Fáil TD Cathal Crowe raised concerns over the pay being offered to security staff, with workers employed by the airport pocketing €14.14 an hour. The Clare TD said the DAA was competing with 51 other employers looking for security staff in the Dublin area.
"There are many employers appealing to the same group of people with far better pay, conditions and without having to commute from the city centre out to the airport and back every day.
"Does that concern you? That you don't have enough cherry in the pie to entice people?' he asked.
Brendan O'Hanlon, DAA head of employee relations, defended the package being offered to security staff.
He responded: "Of course it does, but I think the fact we have 4,000 applications for those jobs shows that we have people looking at the package. We have very attractive pension arrangements, really attractive sick pay arrangements, people can progress up to €21.97 after seven years on the scale."
Speaking after the committee meeting, Siptu's aviation industrial organiser Jerry Brennan criticised the DAA official's remarks.
"If you're 31 and you have three young children to feed, a mortgage to pay and you need some sort of transport for your family, the dreadful wages that they're offering are not OK just because in 35 years time, when you retire, you have a good pension," he said. "Are these people living on candyfloss? What is their thinking?"
Meanwhile, Labour TD Duncan Smith told the committee about his dealings with security staff who were afraid to speak about their working experiences.
The Dublin Fingal TD said that staff had been left feeling "very low, very battered and very bruised".
"The culture is such that they have this fear. It's incredible. I felt like a Cold War spy master trying to talk to people," Mr Smith said.
The DAA CEO refuted his claims, saying that he and other senior staff were upfront engaging with workers, including by working frontline shifts and wanted to "listen and learn" from workers.
The committee also heard that the DAA started recruitment for new staff in 2021 which continued into this year. Mr Philips said that tightened vetting restrictions meant that large numbers of staff could not be recruited.
"As a result of new EU Enhanced Background Checks we faced huge challenges in bringing these people on board, none of which related to the employment terms on offer," he said.
"Consequently, we lost 40% of the new security staff we had recruited, with the remainder having to wait an additional seven weeks before they could start in our business," he said.
