‘Imagine 4 hour wait for a Donegal flight - you would have rowed a boat to London quicker’

Senator Tom Dooley told colleagues they would be quicker ‘rowing a boat’ to London.

He was speaking following significant delays at Dublin Airport with the facility urging people to turn up hours in advance of their flights.

“If you are flying from Dublin Airport soon, please be aware that it might be very busy at peak periods, so allow yourself plenty of time. At peak times, this can mean up to three and a half hours before your departure time. If parking a car, allow a further 30 minutes,” said the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA).

But Senator Dooley suggested this was not feasible for people catching a one hour flight to Carrickfinn.

“Can anyone imagine getting a flight to Donegal to be told they need to rock into Dublin Airport four hours in advance?

“They would have rowed a boat to London quicker than they would get there now with the carry-on,” said Senator Dooley.

The journey by bus takes around four hours while by car it is even quicker.

In a statement addressing concerns about delays in a statement the DAA apologised to people who had missed flights.

It said it was recruiting extra staff to address the issue.

“Unfortunately, queues at security are like to continued to be experienced at peak hours over the weeks ahead as we continued to bring additional trtained security staff on board,” it said.