Dublin Airport has hit out at Virgin Media's The Tonight Show after comments were made about the number of staff who were made redundant during the pandemic.
In a segment on the show, panellists discussed the current situation at the country's busiest airport and spoke to the CEO of the DAA, Dalton Philips, on the possibility of the army moving into the airport this week.
He said: "We have made significant progress in the last six weeks in terms of our overall security programme at Dublin Airport 93 per cent of people over the month of June got through security in under 45 minutes, and in fact, 77 per cent got through in under 30 minutes. So we've made significant progress.
READ MORE: Dublin Airport reports 'significant improvements' in security times but warns of new issues
"Covid and that fifth wave is out there, and we felt that it would be prudent to engage with the defence forces and say look in the unlikely event that we had a Covid outbreak in our security operations, and I'm talking about more than 20 per cent of people being impacted and affected by Covid we would like to be able to turn to the defence forces.
"Now, we don't have that level of Covid or anywhere near it, but I think it's prudent.
"90 per cent of all flights in and out of this country are through Dublin Airport, and I think the public wouldn't thank us."
He added: "Our security teams have just done an outstanding job. They've all put their shoulder to the wheel, and as I said, the proposition has improved dramatically from what happened on the 29th of May.
"So the army was just prudent contingency in the event. Now we are seeing a huge amount of Covid going through the industry. You're seeing massive levels of flight cancellations. In fact, 88 flights in and out of Dublin have been cancelled in the last five days, that impacts about 13,000 people. Clearly, we can't control the airlines and the challenges they have around Covid, but from our side, from a security point of view, prudent planning."
However, it was comments made during the show that prompted the Dublin Airport Authority to respond.
Taking to Twitter to clarify the matter, the airport denied that it had made over 1,000 people redundant during the pandemic.
It said: "Contrary to comments made on #TonightVMTV daa did not make 1000 people redundant during Covid-19. daa introduced a voluntary severance scheme during Summer ,20 at the height of the Covid-19 crisis as part of cost-cutting measures to secure the continued viability of the company."
Adding: "In June 93% of passengers passed through security in under 45 minutes. Passengers heeding our advice to be at the airport 2.5 hours before a short-haul flight & 3.5 hours prior to a long-haul flight with an additional 1 hour for bag drop where required, have sufficient time."
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