The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) has no plans to conduct an independent audit after some 5,000 passengers at the country's largest airport were subjected to a 40-minute power cut yesterday morning.
The incident, which occurred at about 7.50am, led to delays of between 30 minutes and an hour on up to 40 flights, with the power cut affecting the main terminal building, piers, hangars and the airfield. By 11am, the departures noticeboard at the airport stated that 16 flights were delayed.
The problems caused by the initial power cut were compounded by the failure of a back-up power supply to baggage carousels, check-in desks and security screening areas .
Passengers in the terminal building were, however, provided with emergency lighting following the initial power cut.
A spokeswoman for the DAA said it is still investigating the cause of the problem, which was due to a fault in the airport's own internal circuit breaker network.
It is also examining why the back-up generator for the terminal itself did not "kick in", she said, adding that this had been tested and found to be working properly last Friday.
But Fine Gael transport spokesman Fergus O'Dowd TD yesterday called for an independent audit of the airport's back-up power supplies and its ability to ensure that health and safety levels are maintained at all times.
"Dublin airport was effectively shut down for 40 minutes due to an internal power cut. This is an unacceptable development at the country's largest airport and the main gateway to the rest of the world," he said. "It is disturbing from a health and safety point of view that the airport could be left without power for any period without access to an adequate back-up supply. It would be very serious if a power cut were to coincide with a major emergency at the airport."
The DAA spokeswoman said there were no security implications arising from the incident, as passengers who had not been screened were sent back into the main terminal building.
She added that it does not intend to conduct an independent audit in relation to the problem.
"It is hugely regrettable that this happened, and we apologise to those passengers who were affected for any inconvenience caused," she said. "We have our own experts here who are well qualified to check what went wrong."