Aidan Farrelly: Challenges Dublin Airport plan on climate and communities
Aidan Farrelly, Social Democrat spokesperson for transport, addressed the House to challenge aspects of the proposed Dublin Airport CAP and to press for stronger community, climate and economic scrutiny. He called for meaningful engagement with affected communities, a comprehensive island-wide assessment of airport capacity and limits on ministerial planning powers.
Aidan Farrelly sets out the scale of Dublin Airport in 2025 - 36 million passengers, 1.7 million transfers and growing passenger days - and stresses the airport's importance for jobs and tourism. He acknowledges the economic arguments for capacity but warns decisions cannot ignore wider consequences.
Farrelly highlights aviation's contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and the current limits of sustainable aviation fuel supply. He argues that climate and biodiversity impacts must be central to any discussion about expanding airport capacity and to legislative change.
He raises the PLS report findings on noise and homes affected by the north runway, pointing to 8,000 homes under current flight paths versus 538 under the original route. Farrelly urges the DAA and government to undertake meaningful engagement and noise mitigation alongside any legislative changes.
Farrelly stresses that Cork, Shannon, Ireland West, Kerry and Donegal airports must be part of a wider aviation strategy and asks what exploratory work has been done to maximise their use. He recommends an island-wide economic assessment modelled on CE Delft analysis to include climate, health, congestion and community costs.
He urges amendment of Head 5 to restrict ministerial power to alter or revoke planning conditions only to the passenger cap and warns against concentrating wide powers that could undermine local authorities. He commits to proposing constructive amendments as the bill proceeds.
Economic and operational facts
Aidan Farrelly sets out the scale of Dublin Airport in 2025 - 36 million passengers, 1.7 million transfers and growing passenger days - and stresses the airport's importance for jobs and tourism. He acknowledges the economic arguments for capacity but warns decisions cannot ignore wider consequences.
Climate and environmental concern
Farrelly highlights aviation's contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and the current limits of sustainable aviation fuel supply. He argues that climate and biodiversity impacts must be central to any discussion about expanding airport capacity and to legislative change.
Community impact and local infrastructure
He raises the PLS report findings on noise and homes affected by the north runway, pointing to 8,000 homes under current flight paths versus 538 under the original route. Farrelly urges the DAA and government to undertake meaningful engagement and noise mitigation alongside any legislative changes.
Island-wide airport strategy
Farrelly stresses that Cork, Shannon, Ireland West, Kerry and Donegal airports must be part of a wider aviation strategy and asks what exploratory work has been done to maximise their use. He recommends an island-wide economic assessment modelled on CE Delft analysis to include climate, health, congestion and community costs.
Legal and governance protections
He urges amendment of Head 5 to restrict ministerial power to alter or revoke planning conditions only to the passenger cap and warns against concentrating wide powers that could undermine local authorities. He commits to proposing constructive amendments as the bill proceeds.
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Transcript
Thank you very much. Minister, it's my first opportunity to speak with you, since becoming the Social Democrat spokesperson for transport, so just to say on the record I'm looking forward to working with you for the duration of this term. Minister, you don't need me to inform you of just how important Dublin Airport is to this island. Directly, thousands work between both terminals every day, and indeed indirectly we have seen very impressive figures of the impact of the airport on hundreds of thousands of jobs. Just in 2025, 36 million passengers went through Dublin Airport, a 5% increase year on year, a 46% increase since 2015, and we've seen 215 days last year with more than 100,000 passengers, and that equates to real and essential figures regarding tourism and employment opportunities. But also, 1.7 million transfers shows us that Dublin can be and is a gateway to Europe and the rest of the world. Minister, aviation accounts, as you will know, for 2.5% of global carbon emissions and close to 14% of transport emissions. It is the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector, and while we can see a rapid pace in decarbonisation in road transport due to alternative fuel sources, as Hannah Ritchie and Pablo Rosado suggest, the outlook for aviation is less clear. 1% of biofuel production globally is used for air travel and less than 1% of aviation fuel is made up of biofuel. Globally, we don't have the infrastructure to supply the aviation fleet, even in the most optimistic of scenarios. So, Minister, like you have said, the impact of climate and biodiversity on aviation should be and always be central to any discussion with regards to an expansion of our aviation strategy. Equally, Minister, I'm very aware that the reason for this CAP's introduction in the first place was largely due to local infrastructure deficits. Legitimate concerns regarding congestion, noise, impeding those who live in the area or under the flight paths. It's worth putting on the record of this House that these issues have not gone away. If you couple the significant population increases in many of these areas alongside significant passenger increases since 2007, if anything, the local infrastructure Minister is less capable than ever to deal with the proposed legislation before us. But as a constituency Minister, I accept sincerely your bona fides when you tell us of the support that you're receiving on the ground from many who say this CAP should be lifted as well with regards to employment, with regards to opportunities there. So, I think that's also a very important point to make in this regard. If we're going to have a serious conversation about the future capacity of our national airport, it should not be based solely on the capacity of nearby roads to cope with passenger numbers. But I must ask, is the appetite there across government to deliver meaningfully for the communities most affected by this legislation? I'll remind you, Minister, during the PLS report we heard that 8,000 homes were affected by the north runway under the current flight paths compared to the 538 homes that would have been affected under the original permitted route. That's a 15-fold increase. Also, like Recommendation 5 from the PLS report asks, that meaningful engagement is undertaken by the DAA with local communities to mitigate the impact of noise from the north runway. These are tangible actions, Minister, that could really progress alongside this legislation as it moves through the House. We all know that Dublin Airport is not the only international airport on this island. Cork Airport has a capacity of 5 million passengers annually and last year 3.4 million people travelled through that airport. In Shannon, they welcomed 2.3 million passengers but is equally operating well below capacity. Ireland West Airport, their passenger numbers exceeded 950,000 last year with a capacity for 1.5 million. As you're well aware, Minister, other airports exist in Kerry and Donegal and I'm really not standing here suggesting that they collectively can answer the capacity issues that are before you regarding Dublin Airport but I think any important aviation strategy should include them as part of that conversation. It is this government's obligation to ensure that legislation is evidence-based and so what I ask is what preparatory or explorative work has been undertaken to see if we are maximising the use of all airports on the island as well as supporting the capacity constraints at Dublin Airport. In terms of pre-led scrutiny that's been undertaken by the Oireachtas Committee, I heard you on the radio last week, Minister, and I join you in commending those committee members who really did such a thorough PLS report on this bill. Those recommendations paint a very thorough picture for you and your officials about how you should proceed in terms of government amendments. If you didn't know before, you know now about the potential health outcomes associated with this legislation, its impact on people and children specifically. Their voices are always to be more important than sectoral interests, so what mitigations are in place now that we know more? I would also like to particularly highlight recommendation number 12, Minister, that the government should commission a comprehensive economic assessment of Dublin Airport on the model of the ship haul assessment conducted by CE Delft which examines the full climate, health, congestion and community costs of different capacity scenarios. This would, I believe, be a very positive and worthwhile exercise and I would ask you to include all airports on the island in this exercise. I'll finish with one final recommendation, Minister, that Head 5 should be amended to ensure that the ministerial powers to revoke or amend planning conditions is limited solely to the passenger cap conditioned. As you were very aware, Minister, in your former role with regards to housing and local government, we need a wider discussion, I think at this point, within cabinet, within government, about the role of local authorities. I understand with regards to how we got here on this one, but to seek to bring such comprehensive powers into the ministerial office of the day potentially undermines the role of local authorities even more. We will be seeking a number of amendments over the next couple of days, Minister. They will be placed in a very constructive manner and I look forward to the debate in the next stage, certainly with regards to the role of local authorities, but also those very important pieces with regards to climate and biodiversity. Again, thank you for the opportunity to debate. Thank you.