Minister meets Attorney General over Dublin Airport passenger cap

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA

Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien has met the Attorney General over Dublin Airport’s passenger cap to examine options.

A 32 million passenger cap, a planning condition issued by Irish authorities, has become the subject of legal and political scrutiny.

Airlines including Ryanair and Aer Lingus have called for the cap to be removed while others have said that Ireland’s efforts to reduce its emissions will be hampered by lifting the restriction.

Speaking at the opening of Dublin Airport’s solar farm, Mr O’Brien said that the Government was “committed” to removing the passenger cap despite “complexities within that”.

 

He said that he had met Attorney General Rossa Fanning, aviation stakeholders and residents.

“So the legislative options have not been provided to me yet,” he said on Monday.

“We’re looking at options right now, so we haven’t settled on the options as to how we can address the issue of the cap.

“We need to ensure that this island not just stays connected, but can improve its connectivity.

“I’m very conscious as a resident here as well that the airport continues to be and can improve as well in areas of how we interact with our neighbours here, the expansion of the noise insulation certainly is something that I want to see and I know the DAA have plans for that, and I support them in that, and I will challenge them on that as well, from time to time too.

“But the considerations with regard to Ireland’s reduction in emission targets are obviously something that I, as minister with the responsibility for environment, also have to take into account.”

Asked about an alternative flight path from the north runway, Mr O’Brien said that residents do want Dublin Airport to be a “good neighbour”.

“If you go back to the 2008 planning condition that was there, obviously it would have been preferable if that was dealt with a lot sooner,” the Fingal East TD said.

“The airport is a strategic asset for us. Many of the residents here in North Dublin are absolutely aware of that. They they do want the airport to be a good neighbour and from time to time, issues will arise, such as you’ve mentioned with regard to the flight paths.”

 

Chief executive of the DAA (formerly known as the Dublin Airport Authority) Kenny Jacobs said that “we engage extensively with the community”.

He said he met Fingal County Council and the Aircraft Noise Competent Authority (ANCA) last week.

When it was put to him that residents would dispute this, he responded “and lots of people would say the opposite as well”.

He said: “The number of households impacted by noise has been halved with the two runways that we now have. We’re no longer using the crosswind runway that were sending aircraft over Santry, Whitehall and Beaumont. That’s a big, big positive.

“You can always do more, and we want to do more. So we’ve bought houses, we’ve insulated homes. We’ve announced a new insulation scheme at the start of the year.

“It’s really important that this summer, half the aircraft coming and going, our new technology aircraft that’s lower emissions and lower noise, that’s the direction of travel.

“We want to incentivise newer aircraft so that that’s what comes here, and we’re going to heavily penalise the older, worst for emissions, worse for noise, aircraft that come and go here. That’s how you do it.”

Dublin Airport’s solar farm has 15,000 panels that will generate between 10 per cent and 13 per cent of the airport’s power needs.