Ticket machines at Blackrock

[MOH]

They've been doing work on the outside of Blackrock station recently, building a little alcove which can be shuttered off, into which they yesterday moved the two automatic ticket machines.

I can't make any sense of this? They're right beside the small gate onto the platform which is currently always locked, so it would make sense if you could just buy your ticket and walk onto the platform. Especially if they were planning to close the station at night. But then there's no ticket validation on the way in, and you can then bypass the new ticket barriers inside the station on the way out. Unless they're going to put in some kind of one-way turnstile?

The only reason I can see for this is someone decided that since its winter, "lets add to the IE experience by making our passengers stand outside in the freezing rain while they feed their coins one at a time into our regularly breaking ticket machines (given the current weather, they'll both be wrecked inside a week)".