Dublin Airport (Passenger Capacity) Bill 2026: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-01 ============================================================ Joe Conway (IND), Cultural and Educational Panel Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit anocht. I am going to speak on the Dublin Airport (Passenger Capacity) Bill 2026 in the context of aviation safety, aviation security, operational resilience and public participation. A lot of the opening remarks I am going to make here are based on a report done in June 2026 by an airspace safety advocate from the perspective of aviation reporting and governance. I refer to his covering letter: I write further to my previous correspondence regarding aviation safety, aviation security, operational resilience and the Dublin Airport Passenger Capacity Bill. The Joint Committee on Public Petitions and the Ombudsmen has suggested that you [that is, the Minister], or a senior official, meet with me. Given the pace at which the legislation is [now] progressing, I have consolidated my outstanding questions into this briefing. These questions arise from more than five years of research and engagement with Irish, European and international stakeholders and form part of the SAFE-AIR White Paper, now exceeding fifty pages. They are intended to assist [us in our] parliamentary scrutiny by seeking clarification on aviation safety, security, operational resilience, governance and public participation. Stemming from the report, the writer wants to ask the Minister the following pointed questions. In relation to aviation safety, what formal aviation safety assessment accompanied the Bill? Which aviation authorities were consulted? Can the Minister publish the safety assessments relied upon for the formulation of the Bill? In relation to aviation security and resilience, what aviation security assessment was undertaken? Were defence, Garda and national resilience bodies consulted? What operational resilience assessments considered global navigation satellite system, GNSS, interference, drones and emerging risks? In relation to reporting and investigation, who owns an assessment after a report is made? Who owns the escalation of that report? Who owns the investigation? Who owns closure of a safety-relevant anomalous aerial observation? The writer of the letter, as a resident of Swords, made a statutory planning submission in 2004 and paid the prescribed fee. How was that submission and those of other members of the public considered once the Government changed the legislative framework? Also, how were aviation safety, security and operational resilience and community concerns carried forward? His closing request was that the Minister publish any and all safety and security resilience assessments, provide written responses to submissions from members of the public and that he, or a senior official, meet with the writer of this correspondence, as recommended by the Oireachtas committee. The writer underscores key principles in his submission here to us, which include that pilots are not investigators; uncertainty must be captured first and assessed afterwards; reporting and the investigation that follows are completely separate matters; it is not sufficient to take reports from the same aircraft, the same crew and the same flight; and radar detects what is in the skies above Dublin and the nation, but good procedures protect. I will now turn to the concerns of our Independent councillors in Fingal. I agree with what Senator Clifford-Lee said when she mentioned that so many jobs attend the progress and viability of Dublin Airport. In fact, for our local authority out there, Fingal County Council, Dublin Airport is its largest ratepayer; I think I am right in saying that. This is an indication of the integral part it plays in the community and the economy out there. The core stance of the council encompasses several key points. It consistently highlights that the passenger limits, such as the 32 million cap, were legally binding conditions tied to the infrastructure permissions. The council strongly points out that when the DAA’s planning applications to lift the limit were rejected or deemed invalid by the local authorities, this was done because of procedural or planning mechanism issues. The local residents assert the broader concerns of the Airport Regions Council, ARC, which advocates for strict environmental controls, controls on noise and quality-of-life boundaries for the communities directly impacted or overflown by the airport expansion. When all comes to all and we get down to brass tacks, it looks like this is a sort of joust between Michael O’Leary, on the one hand, and, as the Dublin Opinion used to say, Seán Citizen on the other hand. I do not think that the result of any such joust was ever more clearly foreseen. It is an unequal contest and I think we all know the result. We know who the losers are going to be. In this House, we have had one, at least, and maybe two good debates about balanced regional development. It might be in the programme for Government as well to work for balanced regional development. If we counterbalance the expansion of the passenger load at Dublin Airport and the possibility of balanced regional development involving airports, such as the one starting in Waterford and those in Cork, Kerry, Mayo and in Shannon, it is anathema to their viable development if Dublin Airport is hogging the passenger numbers. It is said that people want to fly into Dublin Airport, but this is only because the situation is similar to that which pertained when the railway line between Waterford and Rosslare was closed. This was closed because it was said nobody was using it, but nobody was using it because the trains were being run at 2 o'clock in the morning or something like that. It is a question of generating the result that you want. There are many things about this that we are unhappy about. It is regrettable that certain people say that the people of Swords knew what they were buying into when they bought their houses 30 or 35 years ago. I think Michael O’Leary said it was tough on them. However, would anybody care to speculate on what the number of passenger movements or plane movements were in Collinstown 35 years ago? It was a much more benign environment out there. Go raibh maith agat. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-01/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:08+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-01