Dublin Airport New Runway/Infrastructure.

I am not sure of the structure, but planning decisions are made by the professional planning Inspectorate in a local authority, not elected members, to my knowledge.

Reading much of the discussion here, you might believe that it was the Minister for Transport or members of his party that were the primary actors.

Did the IT report that the FCC request is in response to the DAA's strategic infrastructure proposals? I read the material on line a few days ago and that's what it referred to - in great detail.

I’d have to agree with you. I sent a link a couple of posts back and also explained how to get into view the requested info if you want to view the full requests in detail.

Without some intervention, The passenger cap is now likely to remain in place until probably late 2025 early 2026 by the time ABP (after fingal is appealed )make a decision on it and I just can’t imagine that’s going to be the case. Aerlingus could end up sending a good chunk of the XLRs to Manchester as a result in 2025.

https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/court-schedules-hearing-of-dublin-airport-challenges-to-councils-noise-restriction-measures-1593908.html

it will be interesting to see how this will play out. Maybe an ABP decision before this?

A paper never refused ink.

Mick O'Leary can always be relied on for a good puff piece.

Anyone remember his use of Mary O'Rourke all those years ago.

The drafting and enactment of legislation is a serious business. Assuming it would require primary legislation, the process would require a clear policy rationale justifying the preparation of legislation, advice from the Attorney General on the legality and any risks attaching to whatever was proposed, a formal Government Decision to draft legislation, drafting of Heads of Bill, pre-legislative scrutiny by the relevant Oireachtas Committee, production of the actual Bill, passage through all stages in Dáil Eireann and all stages in Seanad Eireann, signature by the President, then commencement of the Act by the responsible Minister. The Minister for Transport doesn't have responsibility for planning legislation, of course. This is at best a process that takes many months and often much longer, unless emergency legislation was required (such as during the banking crisis or the COVID Pandemic). When you look at it like this, the Ryanair campaign can be seen as simplistic and probably not worthy of serious consideration by the Government - and that's in a situation where some in Government might indeed like to be able to sweep the cap aside.

I’d very much disagree with your last statement re not worthy of serious consideration by Government. We are now turning away routes, jobs, investment to our country. While Ryanair are very vocal about this, how many other airlines have now abandoned plans for Dublin behind the scenes? Hanian are one example.

ABP have the runway appeal since August of 2022. 2 years later and still no decision on this. A full and final planning decision on the cap could take 4/5 years due to the delays and appeals.

What would be the total loss to Ireland if Dublin airport remains at 32 million capacity for the next 5 years pending Fingal decision and appeals to ABP and the courts. An airport that without the cap, would probs be at 40 million in 5 years time.

The cap currently at 32m is a tiny part of a planning decision on terminal 2, in relation to surface access, which has been established that surface access is not the problem once predicted. It’s onerous and damaging. The daa should have removed this in 2017 at the latest but they didn’t.

This is a very serious issue that requires urgent action in my opinion!

I was setting out the factual position regarding what is involved in process terms. Ministers may already have sought or been given policy and legal advice on the issues. Even if work was begun now and there were no obstacles, it's highly unlikely that legislation would be complete and enacted within the lifetime of the present Government. It would then be up to a future Government to decide whether to proceed or let the matter drop.

You can be sure there would be legal challenges whatever happens - that's the nature of getting any major done in Ireland, it seems - so I don't see a magic solution here. The fact that abolition of the cap is not universally supported would guarantee such challenges too. As has been said here before, there are good reasons why planning decisions are not in hands of elected politicians and (again, unless the very functioning of society was at serious risk) enabling intervention in this case would set a precedent that many people would not actually favour. The issue is much broader in policy terms than just the Dublin Airport cap, therefore.

Just because you don't like him doesn't mean he's wrong. He's been wrong many times but not this time

No.

cap has nothing to do with runway operations or times.

South runway can operate 24/7 but the opening of the north runway applied a 65 airport movement limit in 2022 across all runways. A limit which didn’t exist pre north runway. Fingal have ruled this as no longer appropriate and that a night quota would be more beneficial. This has been appealed by residents to ABP since summer 2022.

the current north runway operates departures from 28R or arrivals from 10L depending on the wind between 07:00-23:00 as part of a planning condition. Anything between 23:00-07:00 arriving or departing operates on the old south runway unless maintenance is taking place on the south runway, of which planning dictates that the north runway must be used in preference over the cross wind 16/34 which goes over densely populated areas in Santry, Artane, and Clontarf.

the daa are also trying to get the planning condition changed so that the north runways opening operating time are 06:00-00:00 which is something I don’t think is actually necessary as between 23:00-00:00 it is mostly arrivals which use 28L most of the time.

So there wouldn’t be flights taking off all through the night if the cap was removed?

Then why are the residents complaining about sleep???

I thought all along that was the issue.

Makes no sense now.

That Green politicians are trying to justify the 32mn cap based on local traffic / access is even more ridiculous. Considering traffic on peak days can be in excess of 100k people already (ie what would work out to 36mn+ a year) regularly with no problems.

The fact that airlines are being forced to cut flights in quieter months because of it is just mind boggling, it doesn't make sense on any logical nevermind practical or sensible level.

Agree with second half of your piece, but the first part, how do either of these flight paths have a significant impact on Ashbourne? They do very well to avoid overflying the town compared to 28L departures. Many built up areas under 28L and 10R are much closer and have aircraft much lower.

Edited pictures now uploaded.