They are hiring a lot of new staff.

Dublin Airport received 5,000 job applications, according to daa's Media Relations Manager Graeme McQueen, after days of huge delays at the airport that affected more than 1,000 people. Speaking on RTE's Drivetime, McQueen said that their recruitment for new staff began before Christmas last year and more than 500 candidates have been interviewed and 200 hired. "It's not that we weren't recruiting, we just weren't recruiting at the levels required to meet the demands of what we are currently seeing," McQueen said. He said that training for new staff, however, can take five to six weeks. Garda clearance and the equivalent from other countries is something that causes a delay in the hiring process, and he added that the forecast for passenger levels has been inaccurate. Mr McQueen said: "The bounce back in passenger numbers right across Europe has been much quicker than we were expecting and that's something we are having to deal with." Speaking on RTÉ's Six One News, Group Head of Communications at the daa Kevin Cullinane added that some of its office-based staff would be working on security checks at the weekend. "Additional staff are being rostered. Staff are being offered over time. Our company-wide task force of over 450 employees in back offices such as HR, finance, IT, will be complementing the existing core of over 600 security officers over this weekend," he said. "So there will be a small army of over 1,000 daa employees on hand, augmented by contract staff in queue management to make sure that the optimum number of staff are on duty right through the Bank Holiday weekend and the summer months, June July, August ahead." A spokesperson for Dublin Airport has said that he believes over 1,000 people missed their flights yesterday due to significant queues and delays throughout the terminals. Addressing the situation on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Kevin Cullinane, who is the head of operations for the Dublin Airport Authority (daa) offered an apology to those that were affected. He said: "At this stage we estimate over 1,000 passengers ... we will be doing a final tally with all our airline partners and customers again this morning to ascertain the final number. "But certainly at this stage, it’s well over 1,000 passengers, and we unreservedly apologise."