Dublin airport to charge for plastic bags

Dublin Airport's decision to charge passengers €1 for two zip lock plastic bags for carrying liquids through security screening has provoked a considerable amount of negative feedback from the travelling public and consumer groups.

The idea of charging for the bags is not new - there have been vending machines in Shannon and other airports such as Belfast City for quite some time and there was little in the way of resistance to their installation at the time. Speaking on RTE Radio's 'Morning Ireland' program Ryanair's Stephen McNamara said that the introduction of the charge by the DAA is in contrast to Ryanair's philosophy which implements discretionary charges as a way of driving down ticket prices. The DAA is not reducing passenger handling charges to compensate. 

Dublin airport reportedly spent €70,000 on plastic bags last year.