Only a small number of people travelling from Ireland to the United States were affected by a new fingerprinting procedure introduced at Dublin and Shannon airports yesterday.
The stipulation that anyone arriving in the US on a non-immigrant visa be fingerprinted by immigration officials affected some 2.5 per cent of people flying out of Shannon yesterday, according to airport officials.
Mr Arnold Ellis of the Shannon-based US Bureau of Customs and Border Protection said the new procedure, known as the US Visitor and Immigration Status Indicator Technology (USVISIT), would affect only a "very, very small proportion of people flying to the United States from Ireland". Of 1,000 people travelling on five flights to the US yesterday from Shannon, only 25 had their fingerprints digitally scanned and their photographs taken as part of a new passenger profile system, he said.
Mr Ellis pointed out that the scheme in Ireland only affected travellers on non-immigrant visas.
The majority of people travelling from Ireland did so on the visa-waiver programme. Those who would have to be fingerprinted include people travelling to the US on temporary working visas or to study.
Anyone travelling on green cards or on holiday would not be asked to provide fingerprints or have their photo taken.
Mr Ellis said the process of taking people's fingerprints and taking their photographs "takes just 15 seconds, so 25 by 15 seconds is the amount of extra time it has taken here today".
There were no complaints received yesterday from the travelling public on the new procedure in Shannon, he said.
The system also worked without incident at Dublin airport with just "a few mutterings from one of two" people, according to an airport source.
"Most just took it in the spirit it's meant - that it has been put in place for security reasons." The technology consists of a small inkless clear box that digitally scans fingerprints and a spherical computer camera that simultaneously snaps pictures.
The new procedure was yesterday repeated at airports throughout the world as part of a new US approach to identify and track violators of immigration controls, and suspected terrorists.