It will be several more weeks before drone technology is deployed at Dublin Airport, an Oireachtas committee has heard.
The Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Jack Chambers, said that the airport operator, the daa, has purchased the hardware, and is now engaged with the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) "on the regulatory and training process".
He told the Joint Committee on Transport that a "statutory instrument" will be needed, but that the roll-out is "proceeding at pace, and is an absolute priority for me".
The technology will be "deployed and operational within weeks", Minister Chambers said.
Earlier this month, three flights at Dublin Airport were diverted after drones were spotted near the facility.
At that stage, the Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan, said that the technology would be deployed in "a number of weeks".
More NCT testers
It now takes an average of 28 days to book an NCT, Minister Chambers said.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the waiting time was 12 days, and the minister said that the plan is to get back to that "by the end of June".
Since December, he revealed, testing has risen from 25,000 to 35,000 a week.
This should rise to 40,000 per week from next month, with the planned deployment of 55 additional non-EU testers by the middle of April, Minister Chambers added.
The priority waiting list stands at 50,000, a reduction of 10,000, he noted, and encouraged people to use this faster option when booking their NCT.
The minister also said that he hopes to make an announcement "shortly" on "increasing capacity within our driver testing system" to address "the unacceptable waiting times" there.
Concerns were expressed over violations of cycle lanes going unpunished.
"One person per day is fined for parking in a cycling path," Steven Matthews said, which "would make you ask yourself why do we bother putting in cycling lanes at all".
The Green TD noted that in 2021 just ten fines were handed down in his Wicklow constituency, rising to 20 fines last year.
"Targeted enforcement is really important," Minister Chambers conceded.
