THE DUBLIN Airport Authority (DAA) is planning to recruit 500 people to run Terminal 2 (T2) when it opens in November.

Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey wrote to the DAA on Monday to confirm that he wanted the State-owned company to operate T2, and recruitment ads have been placed in national media today for 500 positions.

The staff will be employed by a new DAA subsidiary called ASC and will be engaged in security, cleaning, customer service and passenger processing.

“The terms and conditions will be different from the terms and conditions in the existing terminal,” DAA chief executive Declan Collier told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport yesterday. “That has been agreed with staff and their representatives.”

The DAA said the new positions were in addition to 400 jobs that would be created in retail and catering outlets at T2.

In the Dáil yesterday, in response to a question from Fine Gael deputy Fergus O’Dowd, Mr Dempsey ruled out the sale of the DAA as a means of generating money for the exchequer.

“I have not had any discussions with the Minister for Finance with regard to selling off any of the assets of the Dublin Airport Authority, nor do I have any plans in that regard,” the Minister said.

He added that the “wider national interest” could not be “guaranteed” if DAA was privately owned.

Mr Collier told the Oireachtas committee that the volcanic ash crisis cost the DAA €9 million in “lost revenue” as 5,000 flights were cancelled in April and May.

DAA’s passenger traffic declined by 13 per cent last year due to the impact of the recession.

Mr Collier said current trading remained “difficult” but he expected “renewed modest growth from next year”.

Mr Collier’s remuneration of €568,100 was criticised at the committee hearing yesterday, particularly his €50,900 bonus in a year when the airport manager made a loss of €37.9 million.

The DAA boss said the bonus was performance-related, but declined to specify what targets he had met to merit the payment.

However, he indicated that his remuneration would be reduced this year. “I’ve taken a 26 per cent cut in remuneration and I will be taking a further cut this year.”

He said “just over 100 people” out of a workforce of 3,200 in DAA were eligible for bonus payments annually.

Mr Collier was asked about Shannon airport and the autonomy of its management to make decisions locally.

He said Shannon had an “agreed” budget of €95 million a year, which its management was responsible for spending. “There’s no question of them having to seek permission from the DAA to buy a box of biros. “They have very significant autonomy over their affairs. There is no dead-hand approach that is portrayed sometimes in the media and in the regions.”

He said the DAA had invested €370 million in Cork airport and €230 million in Shannon in recent years.