High volumes of air traffic and ongoing staff shortages are causing temporary air space closures at Dublin Airport, the Fórsa trade union has said.
Earlier, the Irish Aviation Authority confirmed that its Dublin Airport air traffic control operations temporarily restricted the flow of aircraft arriving and departing the airport three times in the last month.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Niall Shanahan, Director of Communications with Fórsa, said it was his understanding that the stoppages lasted around 30 minutes and would have affected air traffic in and out of the country, as well as air traffic passing through Irish airspace
He said there are 245 air traffic controllers who do operational duties in Ireland and 26 people have left their posts recently.
Mr Shanahan said there was a mismatch between operational capacity and the demands on the service.
Recruitment efforts are ongoing, he said, but competitive rates of pay elsewhere are making this challenging.
Mr Shanahan said the shortage of housing was also a factor.
The internal disputes resolutions board at the Irish Aviation Authority will meet on 10 May, he added, to develop a process around staff issues.
