So far today the air traffice control services in Dublin Airport operated with as normal with no delay to passengers.  At this point it is impossible to predict how and when the ban on overtime may affect services and cause delays or flight cancellations.The unofficial overtime ban being imposed by air traffic controllers is due to the lack of air traffic controllers at Dublin Airport and around the country.  There are approximately 300 air traffic controllers in Ireland with 100 of those based in Dublin. No new air traffic controllers have been recruited since 9/11 and although there are currently approximately 70 in training many of these will not come on stream until later this year or next year. Air traffic controllers go through an intensive 2 year programme before they are qualified.

With  increasing  air traffic in and out of all the Irish airports and particularly Dublin the only way of currently operating a full service is with overtime by people working their days off and their rest days to keep the service going.