Department guidelines for airports: Dublin Airport has a greater presence from the Department of Agriculture guarding against foot-and-mouth disease than from the Department of Health checking for the SARS virus, an Air Rianta spokeswoman has confirmed.
Air Rianta would "comply with whatever guidelines" it was given by the Department of Health and the National Disease Surveillance Centre, the spokeswoman said.
Department officials were not attending the airport and airport staff had not been requested to take any specific precautions when dealing with passengers from SARS-infected countries.
"We are wholly dependent on what the experts tell us. At the moment we have inbound posters advising people returning from SARS risk regions such as China, Singapore, Toronto, Hong Kong and Vietnam to be alert to the symptoms of the virus.
"Outbound posters advise people not to take non-essential travel to the same countries."
Before the weekend, the Department of Health will be issuing information leaflets to Air Rianta, which will be handed out to the public at the airport.
A spokesman for the Department of Health said that travel advice advertisements placed in national newspapers three weeks ago would be reissued "imminently". However a wider campaign involving radio and television was not planned for the moment.
Figures for the expenditure on the Department's SARS information campaign are not available.
During the foot-and-mouth crisis, the Department of Agriculture spent €495,255 on newspaper advertising, €104,774 on radio advertisements s and €362,915 on television ads.
Officials still carry out checks and in the baggage hall bins are provided for food disposal.
