Legality of charge to return passport.

if you suspect that it’s not legal, you should report it to the Airport Police.

millions of people are going through that airport every year.

I'd say the amount of stuff lost is astronomical.

The airport more than likely have staff that some of there dutys are to sort stuff out like lost property.

The 10 euro charge is to cover the cost of paying these staff.

Cheaper than getting a new passport all the same. I'd just be happy to get it back.

According to the Dublin Airport Bylaws: https://www.dublinairport.com/docs/default-source/at-the-airport/airport-bye-laws.pdf?sfvrsn=d6b1f108_2

and

You contravened the bylaws in leaving your passport unattended on airport property. They incurred an expense in retrieving it, storing it, contacting you and returning it to you. They value that expense at €10.

All legal and above board.

You agreed to the airport bye laws by flying

There's no legal requirement to take cash for anything except settlement of a debt. That might be an approach to challenge on, your one would not be.

DFA would cancel it and charge you for an new one. They have no idea where a returned passport has been so have a very good reason to cancel it.

10 euro is a small price to pay instead of them contacting the DFA to say a passport was found and it being immediately cancelled and you then having to apply for a new passport and a marker for a lost passport against you.

I was surprised to read this but according to the Dublin Airport website there is a €10 fee…

• There is a €10 handling charge payable for each lost item returned to its owner. The handling charge can only be paid by contactless payment. An item may be posted to its owner for an additional cost. 

I presume it’s because of the volume of stuff and the time / man hours and other costs taken to process, photograph it, store it and put it on the website etc as well as to take calls and deal with the public directly…

Tens of thousands of people use the airport every day, departing and arriving and connecting…

suppose they feel it’s fairer to pass the cost on to people who lost items than add it to general airline / passenger charges, which is probably fair… it costs only the people they are holding stuff for…

Contactless just suits them unfortunately.

legally ? It’s a strange one, it doesn’t seem fair and above board but….

if you visited me , left your phone behind, would I be entitled to hold onto it until you make a contactless payment ?

If you lose 2 passports you may not be issued a 10 year one as a replacement. Depending on how many you have lost, you may only get a one year passport.

There is an express power in the State Airports Act 2004 s. 15(3) for an airport authority to make bye-laws providing for, among other things, . . .

The thing is, the power to fix charges doesn't seem to have been exercised. I don't see anything in the 2014 bye-laws that fixes a charge of €10 for the return of lost property. Instead, we have bye-law 44(8):

What this means, I think, is that the bye-laws could, but don't, provide for the airport authority to operate (and charge for) its own lost property service; they just provide for lost property to be handed over to "authorised officers".

"Authorised officer" is defined in the legislation. It can mean (a) a member of the Garda Siochana or (b) a person authorised to perform functions under the Airports and Aviation Acts 1936 to 2014 — i.e. a member of the Airport Police Service.

So, is there a legal authority for the Airport Police Service to charge €10 for handling and returning lost property? The bye-laws, as noted, don't provide it but there may be authority buried somewhere in the Airports and Aviation Acts 1936 to 2014 (which are badly in need of consolidation). Reading those Acts to establish whether there is a statutory basis for the practice is left as an exercise for the student.

This is the type of thing now that will lead to them automatically forwarding it to the DFA for filing in the shredder.

'No, no some lad was moaning about the fee...so now..no fee and no passport either'

I guess someone has to administer Lost & Found property. It costs money to mind and return your property. Someone has to pay for it, why wouldn't it be the person who lost the object.

Does it matter what the object is? Still has the overhead to manage it.

I guess the alternative is that anything "found" is classed as rubbish and thrown in trash and no charge, and no return. Would you prefer that??

Or would you prefer someone collects it, minds it, and is there in the office to hand it to you for the charge of $10?

I know what I would prefer!

Not quite the same. In this case the airport authorities found his passport, tracked him down, found his contact details and got in tough to let him know and invite him to recover the passport. If you set up a system like that, it takes resources and therefore costs money to run. Who should pay that money, if not the people who benefit from the system?

If I mislaid something in the airport and got it back safe and sound I would consider €10 a reasonable fee for keeping and returning it.

Having said that it might be better from a PR point of view to add a tiny fraction to the charges every passenger pays and use that to fund the lost property service.

You'd have a better chance of winning the Euromillions.

I don't buy the tickets so I'd have a better chance of pretty much anything else🙂

Like I said personally I'd be glad to get my property back and pay the fee.

But it would be a nice touch in Ireland of the Welcomes to reunite travellers with their stuff without charge.