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Updated 1.05 PM
AUTHORITIES AT DUBLIN Airport say they are aware of increased security at a number of airports, including the UK, but are continuing to operate as normal.
US authorities have said they are bolstering security at some airports in Europe and the Middle East that have with direct flights to the US amid concern that terror groups are developing new explosives to circumvent airport security.
US Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced unspecified steps that would be carried out in “coming days,” without saying which airports would be affected.
A spokesperson for the Dublin Airport Authority has said they note the comments but that passengers travelling through the airport will not notice any changes.
Passengers flying to the US go through the usual security checks in Dublin but are also checked for a second time by US officials. It is here that passengers may experience tighter security but it is up to the US authorities to decide at what hubs they will implement them.
After an assessment of security threats, Johnson said he had directed the Transportation Security Administration “to implement enhanced security measures in the coming days at certain overseas airports with direct flights to the United States.”
Johnson said that “we will continue to adjust security measures to promote aviation security without unnecessary disruptions to the travelling public.”
The airports were located in the Middle East and Europe, according to an official at the Department of Homeland Security, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The announcement came before the US Independence Day celebrations on Friday but officials would not say whether authorities had uncovered a specific threat or plot.
“There will be enhanced security measures in certain airports that fly non-stop to the US,” the DHS official said.
“We’re targeting certain airports abroad… based on real time intelligence,” the official added.
The new measures would be designed in a way to avoid creating major hassles for travellers, without signaling to potential terrorists what those steps would be, officials said.
“Information about specific enhancements is sensitive as we do not wish to divulge information about specific layers of security to those who would do harm,” said a second DHS official, who asked not to be named.
The official said authorities “may require some additional screening of persons and their property, so travelers should always arrive at an airport with plenty of time for screening to be sure they do not miss their flights.”
Media reports said the additional screening could apply to shoes worn by passengers and electronic devices.
In the UK, the Department for Transport (DfT) said late Wednesday that it would “step up some of our aviation security measures” following the warning from US security chiefs, the Guardian reported.
“For obvious reasons we will not be commenting in detail on those changes. The majority of passengers should not experience significant disruption,” a spokesman told the BBC.
US counter-terrorism experts in recent months have said there is cause for concern that extremists have come up with new tactics to avoid detection at airports.
Just Sunday, US President Barack Obama warned that “battle-hardened” Europeans who embrace jihad in Syria and Iraq threaten the United States because their passports mean they can enter the country without a visa.
“We have seen Europeans sympathetic to their (militants’) cause travelling into Syria and may now travel into Iraq, getting battle-hardened. Then they come back,” Obama warned in an interview that aired Sunday on the US broadcaster ABC.
These combatants “have a European passport. They don’t need visas to get into the United States,” he told the program “This Week.”
“Now, we are spending a lot of time, and we have been for years, making sure we are improving intelligence to respond to that.
“We have to improve our surveillance, reconnaissance, intelligence there. Special forces are going to have a role. And there are going to be times where we take strikes against organizations that could do us harm.”
The citizens who live in these towns should be deciding if they want direct provision centers in their area, not over paid politicians and councillors.
@Raven: do you get to decide who moves into your town
@Brian Mc Cabe: tullamore in two years time. Sit back and watch
@Raven:
“Administrators shouldn’t get to administer! It should be the citizens!”
@Fergus:
They’re not administrators if they don’t consult with the citizens that it effects directly, you’re thinking of a different word.
@Brian Mc Cabe:
Not I, we do. Our local ribbon cutters consult with us, the people in our area, on any major issues that will or could effect us, doesn’t yours?
@Raven: what (alt-rite, hence oxymoron) logic or law is that founded on birdie?
@Joe Davis: Have you looked at Tullamore now, 168 refugees might bring the tone of the place up lol
Could be used to house single people who are either in homeless hostels or small families that are in B&Bs etc, would give them a start to rebuild their lives,
@Paul O’Sullivan: plenty of ghost estates around the country which will remain unoccupied because “our own” refuse to move out of their own locality.
@Paul O’Sullivan: Does Tullamore have a big homelessness problem or a housing crisis?
People complaining that an existing building is being re purposed as a direct provision centre, yet if the council build a ‘purpose built’ centre ‘outside the town’ there’d be uproar about the money spent. All this is is NIMBYism.
@Paul: that’s not true, I’m talking about single men, in particular, who are left in homelessness for years, because they cant get a job because their homeless and they cant get a private rental because their homekess/ jobless etc
Men who end up isolating themselves with same and end up drinking or abusing drugs out of social exclusion.
And their are young women in this situation too.. in care for years such as foster families only at 18 years of age abandoned by the system…. into homeless hostels…
@Terrence Edwards: ah deres a bit of the ole racism in there too
@Graham Manning: shame on you, no one mentioned race, I’ve only posted facts.
@Paul O’Sullivan: did I direct that to you? Nope. And you trying to say that zero of the opposition to this fro anyone is in any way rooted in racism? Come on….
@Paul O’Sullivan: the on street homeless won’t move away from their dealers and begging spots. The hotel homeless wont move away from Krispy Kreme.
@Paul: no there aren’t
It shouldn’t be in centre of the town then on another note they can house asylum seekers but not their own homeless
Supply homes for IRISH homeless first. Any accommodation left over can go to others after consultation with local residents.
This is way out of hand, we can’t keep shoving people into the arse end of nowhere just to meet our international obligations.
The locals and the asylum seekers deserve better than this, we’re constantly told how well we’re doing but nothing seems to improve.
PTSD must be present amongst this group and it can be treated, care doesn’t stop at the door.
@Cormac Laffan:
You can bet there’s EU or NGO money involved in all of this.
@Cormac Laffan: In Germany they would be forced to work in industry starting in menial jobs to contribute to the economy. We’re the only country that allows freeloading.
@Cormac Laffan: Well put ..ignore the comments from the ones who accuse the locals of being ‘nimbys’ when they themselves and their own back yards are far away from it (that’s if they’re fortunate enough to have a back yard!)…
@Dnom: Not free-loaders. This is the first batch of low/no hours wokers on minimum wage who will gladly take jobs doing anything and thereby destroy the local labour market. Kids in Tullamore will have to go elsewhere for work while the new workers of Tullamore will never be able to earn enough to buy homes and the place will spiral into a ghetto.
Can they hurl???
@John Smith: On the train to Dublin from Carlow last year I listened to a guy sat behind me talking about hurling for his school team. I tried picturing the guy, sounded a lot like the lads I met in Athlone RTC who were mad into GAA. When we arrived in Hewston, I stood up to get off. He was a black lad, about 16-17.
@David Jordan:
I watched Paul McGrath on the tele one time talk about football and Guinness, what’s your point?
@David Jordan: *Houston
@Aido: Heuston even
When Brexit kicks in next jan, the dept of justice will be putting asylum seekers up in civil servants homes.
LOL
Post Berxit we are going to be inundated with asylum seekers being the handy go to English speaking country that provides free social welfare and housing. We are exploited in every way possible from big corporation tax avoidance, tax free landlords/vulture funds and welfare scamming.
They’ll take one look at Tullamore and get back on the bus, don’t worry.
Wow. They must run a competition for the most depressing looking buildings in Ireland.
May I ask the question -
“Is it not the case that an owner of a building proposing a change of use (from the original use that was granted for the build/ grant of planning permission) – that they must reapply through the normal planning application processes to the County Council. This would normally involve that a public notice would be posted/nailed to a prominent position at the exterior of the site facing onto the public road outlining the building’s new proposed purpose???
Have I missed something here…perhaps with a sneaked-in legislative change for so-called ‘emergency accommodation’
…er …how would one define an ‘emergency’ in terms of a timeframe?
– with the future occupants of direct provision centres usually languishing in this limbo for many years
– even decades!
have your say