Drug detection dog being sought for Mayo airport

A WEST of Ireland TD is spearheading a campaign for a drug detection dog to be assigned to Ireland West International Airport Knock.

Fine Gael Deputy Tony McLoughlin has raised the matter with Finance Minister Michael Noonan.

He also wants to know if Revenue Commissioners has at its disposal adequate resources to carry out checks along the western coastline to prevent narcotics arriving here.

In response, Minister Noonan said the deployment of Revenue staff and resources is a matter for Revenue.

He elaborated: “Revenue currently has approximately 2,000 staff countrywide engaged on activities that are dedicated to targeting and confronting non-compliance.

'These activities include anti-smuggling and anti-evasion, investigation and prosecution, audit, assurance checks, anti-avoidance, returns compliance and debt collection. There are over 860 Revenue staff currently serving in the Border, Midlands, West Region.

“Revenue currently deploys seventeen detector dog teams, nine of which have drug detection capabilities. I am advised that the cost of training a dog is estimated at €25,000 and the time to train a team is eight weeks.

“The number of dog units is a matter that is kept under ongoing review by Revenue in light of intelligence and overall assumption of risk by them.”