My experience in Dublin Passport Control

faceman

I returned to Dublin airport from Berlin on sunday and my jaw dropped at how poor Passport control has gotten. I would compare it with that of some of the African airports I have visited!

Be warned, it took 20 minutes to get through in total athough I have heard horror stories of it taking longer. There were 5 desks open, yet there was no queues. There was so many people in the hall, it was just a crowd. There was skippers, pushers, you name it.

There were 2 doors coming from the gates which meant that people were falling into the hall into chaos adding to the misery.

With the recent changes to border controls, the Gardai reviewed all passports, including Irish, and even irish passport holders got asked an obligatory question when presenting your passport.

i guess my point is, be warned, it could take some time to get through.

chillywilly

did you have a good time in berlin?:D

Gran Hermano

faceman wrote: »

I returned to Dublin airport from Berlin on sunday and my jaw dropped at how poor Passport control has gotten. I would compare it with that of some of the African airports I have visited!

Be warned, it took 20 minutes to get through in total athough I have heard horror stories of it taking longer. There were 5 desks open, yet there was no queues. There was so many people in the hall, it was just a crowd. There was skippers, pushers, you name it.

There were 2 doors coming from the gates which meant that people were falling into the hall into chaos adding to the misery.

With the recent changes to border controls, the Gardai reviewed all passports, including Irish, and even irish passport holders got asked an obligatory question when presenting your passport.

i guess my point is, be warned, it could take some time to get through.

Article here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article5489282.ece

Gardai working at Dublin airport’s immigration checkpoints have been on an unofficial “go slow” in protest at losing a €29 daily meal allowance.

The dispute caused misery for passengers flying into Dublin over Christmas who faced delays of up to three hours.

Gardai have been taking extra time to examine every passport in a variation of the “blue flu” tactic they have used before.

Garda management has decided that members of the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) will no longer be entitled to meal allowances when they work outside police stations.

The “subsistence allowance” can be worth about €6,000 a year. Gardai were getting €16 for a five-hour shift, €29 for eight hours and €42 for 12 hours away from a station.

The move is part of a series of cutbacks in garda expenses. Gardai working at the airport say the allowance compensated for the lack of a canteen. They were informed of the cutback on December 24.

So it looks like the Irish police are holding us to ransom with another blue flu.
All so they get their lunches paid for.

sneem-man

Yeah,Apparently its due to them losing 30Euro food allowance (per day) but as stated this is unofficial.

flikflak

Hmmm interesting. I was wondering why it took so long just after Christmas and also on the 17th Jan. Seemed to be a bit quicker on the 1st Feb though.

Hopefully things will improve a bit as it was always a breeze getting through.

Wing Walker

One small point, or question, to add. Has anyone noticed that non-uniformed members (correct term?) of the GNIB wear absolutely no visible identification. They're looking for your passport and you could be literally handing it to anybody.

It's only a very small thing but I have never seen it in any other (EU) country I've visited. There is always some sort of uniformed person checking passports with plainly visible ID. Shouldn't our guys be up to at least a similar standard?

WW

Trampas

€29 for lunch. Where are the eating?

P. Breathnach

Trampas wrote: »

€29 for lunch. Where are the eating?

Food in the airport tends to be expensive!

faceman

Thats crazy. Causing pain for the consumer does nothing to gain public support. Especially for lunch allowance of €29 per day!

I get €20 per week allowance and i though i was fancy!

robinph

I always tend to race from the far end of the D gates just to get to the passport control ahead of as many people as possible so I can get through quickly. If there is another plane landed at the same time then it can be a bit futile sometime though.

I got to the control when there was nobody else around on Tuesday though and thought it a bit strange when they actually went and read the contents of the picture page on my passport as it's usually just a wave of the red front cover or if they are being really picky they sometimes want to see that it's an Irish or UK one. They have never actually read the thing before though.

P. Breathnach wrote: »

Food in the airport tends to be expensive!

It's not that expensive.

mikedragon32

faceman wrote: »

Thats crazy. Causing pain for the consumer does nothing to gain public support. Especially for lunch allowance of €29 per day!

I get €20 per week allowance and i though i was fancy!

I suggest you boycott Passport control!

I agree that €29 per day is mad money for meal allowance, though.

Last week (2nd Feb) there was no go slow and it still took over 20 minutes to get through as there were three booths open. One for non-eu travellers and two for everyone else. I doubt regular travellers would even notice a protest of this nature at this stage.

therecklessone

P. Breathnach wrote: »

Food in the airport tends to be expensive!

It's not the place they are stationed that matters. AFAIK, the monies paid are an entitlement for members who are working in a place that has no mess facilities (i.e. no kitchen or canteen)

Day Rates Euros

5 to 8 hours €16.02

8 to 12 hours €28.05

12 hours or more €41.05

That would apply to a member who is on duty at a security post (for e.g. at an embassy, or the Taoiseach's residence), but how it applies to the GNIB when there is a Garda station beside the old terminal I don't know, perhaps someone else can enlighten us?

Gran Hermano

Don't forget it's €29 for 8 hour shift but €42 for a 12 hour shift.
That's what I call a nice per diem.

mikedragon32

Can we not go down the route of moaning about how much they actually get. AH is fill of Public Sector bashing at the moment, if that's your bag.

Please try focus on the issue of the "Go Slow" at the airport.

Lplated

When you go to the U.S., they have two different queques at emmigration - one for those holding american passports and one for everyone else.

I think we should have something similar here - i just don't get why i (or anyone else) should wait so long (longest for me 1 hour 10 mins) to get into my own country, when most of the delay is spent on people trying to get through on non-irish passports.

therecklessone

mikedragon32 wrote: »

Can we not go down the route of moaning about how much they actually get. AH is fill of Public Sector bashing at the moment, if that's your bag.

Please try focus on the issue of the "Go Slow" at the airport.

Not a bad point, but can I just say...

I don't think this apparent go-slow is anything to do with the issue of subsistence allowance, as I thought that was already resolved? Could this be a reaction to the pension levy?

Fratton Fred

it really is a bunch of arse in passport control sometimes, work to rule or not.

Please please please DAA, when you open your new terminal, make some provision for people travelling within the CTA, so people who don't need to go through passport control don't have to

BuffyBot

As the CTA is being abolished, I doubt that will happen..

Davidth88

I have certainly noticed that it's slower.

My last trip I was coming back from Rome, and it took me about 20 mins , I even got a question ' Where did you travel from please Mr Davidth88 '

Part of the problem is the design of the two immigration halls.

The one in peir B is too small , no room for a queue to form , and no queue control.

The one in peir A/D , badly designed because you you cannot see if the GNIB are sitting in the ' box ' or not , so you often have guys sitting in a ' box ' idle because no-one can see they are there .

The type of ' box ' is wrong because the GNIB are not facing the queue , if you go to any other airport in the EU ( or at least the ones I have been to ) the border control guys are facing you can easily see if they are working or not.

Fratton Fred

Davidth88 wrote: »

the border control guys are facing you can easily see if they are working or not.

a cynic would say that is why they are designed that way

Dodge

Spent 45 minutes getting through passport control on Saturday evening. About the same time as my flight from Birmingham. 2 slots open.

esharknz

Coming in from heathrow last month (long trip from auckland), I noticed the non-EU queue would have stretched for at least 100 metres (I think a few US flights had landed). Not sure some of these people would bother coming back! I'm non-EU myself so have to wait in these queues to come back in but of course OH is Irish and gets rather annoyed with the wait (lots of other annoyed EU nationals waiting outside too for their OH)

fermoyboy

So basically people on here are complaining because now the Gardai in Immigration are actually doing their jobs and checking passports!!!

Hagar

fermoyboy wrote: »

So basically people on here are complaining because now the Gardai in Immigration are actually doing their jobs and checking passports!!!

People should be complaining that while they were getting their faces filled for free at the tax-payer's expense they didn't bother doing the job properly.

Dodge

fermoyboy wrote: »

So basically people on here are complaining because now the Gardai in Immigration are actually doing their jobs and checking passports!!!

Passport checks for EU citizens should take seconds.

Gran Hermano

fermoyboy wrote: »

So basically people on here are complaining because now the Gardai in Immigration are actually doing their jobs and checking passports!!!

Way to miss the point...

People are objecting to the 'work to rule' behaviour of the police on duty.
When the staff on passport control go out of their way and ask every person landing
questions with the sole purpose to create delays and
disruptions. If I'm travelling on an Irish passport and returning from GB
I do not want to engage in idle banter at passport control especially if the person checking
my passport is not doing so out of security concerns
but rather due to an industrial dispute.

It's nothing to do with security but staff throwing their toys
out of prams over lunch allowances.

If Heathrow, Frankfurt, CDG or similar airports did the same people would
be in uproar and it would create chaos with missed transfers and suchlike.

Fratton Fred

fermoyboy wrote: »

So basically people on here are complaining because now the Gardai in Immigration are actually doing their jobs and checking passports!!!

They are not doing any more than before. Now they just spend two minutes staring at your photo rather than 3 seconds.

Noodles631

Is the go slow still in operation, anyone know??;)

Fratton Fred

Noodles631 wrote: »

Is the go slow still in operation, anyone know??;)

The last two three times through there I have had a cheery "Where have you flown from" to which i reply "Heathrow" and I get "Have a nice weekend".

it is actually now a nice experience.

Noodles631

Nice to hear of your nice experience, but the question still stands, is the go slow still in operation. I have to get a connecting flight and time is of the essence under normal circumstances. Otherwise it means I have to book the connection hours later. Thanks for responding;)

esharknz

Passed through last month and was a bit worried about the "go-slow" after what I'd witnessed in the non-EU queue when coming back off a long haul from New Zealand (OH is Irish, and the guard kindly let me through the EU queue, as I apparently looked like a trainwreck, and had the heathrow stamp. Non-Eu queue was stretched for AGES).

No problem this time and they'd seemingly replaced the non-EU queue with "All Passports" which helps if you have an EU passport. This was pier D I think.

Fratton Fred

Noodles631 wrote: »

Nice to hear of your nice experience, but the question still stands, is the go slow still in operation. I have to get a connecting flight and time is of the essence under normal circumstances. Otherwise it means I have to book the connection hours later. Thanks for responding;)

That is what I meant to say

It appears not to be any more, but even so, you can catch it at the wrong time and still get caught up for 20 minutes or so. It depends which pier you land at as well, if you land at pier A or D then you can quite easily get three planes arrive together which causes chaos.

Why do you need to go through passport control for a connecting flight?

Noodles631

Coming back from England, connecting to Galway, Thanks for the advice

Fratton Fred

Noodles631 wrote: »

Coming back from England, connecting to Galway, Thanks for the advice

Good luck.

If you are checking in and going back through security, don't forget to use the Business and Domestic queue, it could save you quite a bit of time.