OVER €8.7 MILLION worth of drugs, illegal items and cash have been seized at Irish airports so far in 2022.

New figures from the Revenue Commission show that €8,760,424 worth of drugs, illegal items and cash have been seized at airports throughout the state, with Dublin Airport seeing significantly more seizures compared to other airports.

The figures were released by Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe to Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy in an answer to a Parliamentary Question.

In Dublin Airport alone, there has been €7.9 million worth of illegal items and drugs seized by Revenue, alongside €209,714 in cash.

This compares to €13.9 million worth of illegal items and drugs seized in the airport across all of 2021.

Shannon Airport has also seized significant amounts of drugs and illegal items so far this year, with €606,642 worth of illegal material being detained in the airport in 2022.

In total, there have been 3,102 seizures in all Irish airports so far this year, with Kerry Airport seeing the lowest number of seizures at just three.

However, the value of these three searches is substantial at €31,458.

So far this year there has not been any seized cash returned, with just €26,400 being returned in 2021.

According to Revenue, it carries out inspections and controls at all Irish airports and these include on passengers, their luggage and occasionally on freight.

There are no figures for the total number of overall searches, as Revenue do not record data unless there is a positive detection of illicit items.