Dublin Airport (Passenger Capacity) Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-08 ============================================================ Aubrey McCarthy (IND), University of Dublin I thank the Minister for being here and I thank Senator Conway for his words even though I did not understand some of them. I am moving this amendment with Senator Conway because I know this Bill is important, but it also risks becoming just a Dublin story when it should be a national one. I know we are debating the passenger cap at Dublin Airport and how many people can move through one gateway in Ireland, which is in Dublin. It is a legitimate and pressing question, but every hour we stand debating capacity at one airport is time we are not asking a basic question: why does so much of Ireland's connectivity have to run through a single gate at all? Even though I live near Dublin Airport and use it all of the time, I think this amendment is asking for something reasonable. It is a report on how we can best use our regional airports and how they can be put to proper use that will support regional development, which is in the programme for Government, and also take pressure off Dublin Airport. The Minister knows we have wonderful infrastructure at Kerry, Cork, Shannon, Knock and Donegal airports. Those runways are sitting there today. They are often underused, as we know. At the same time, however, Dublin is straining at the seams and rural Ireland is missing out. The programme for Government advocates for balanced regional development, but what I have outlined is not balance when it comes to regional development. The report we are asking for is not just a box-ticking exercise. Amendment No. 2 is specific and deliberate. We want the Minister to examine three things. The first one is fares. A family in Kerry, Mayo or Donegal should not have to drive three hours to Dublin in order to fly out of the country. The second is local employment. Every route based out of a regional airport supports jobs, tourism, logistics, hospitality and aviation. These are jobs that are needed most in places that are farthest from Dublin. The third aspect is to reduce our overreliance on the larger airports. A country that funnels all its air traffic through one hub is a country susceptible to one bad afternoon as a result of power being lost, which happened at Heathrow Airport recently. That would put us in a dreadful situation. I stress that this amendment is modest. It is constructive. We are not legislating for any outcomes here. We are asking for the Minister to look, to gather evidence and to bring that evidence back to this House within a year so that we can then, when we next legislate on aviation capacity, we can do so as a whole country, rather than in respect of one airport in isolation. I have heard it said that regional airports are a legacy issue and that the future of Irish aviation is consolidation around Dublin. I do not accept that. A small island country cannot put all its eggs in one basket when it comes to airports. These other airports should not be an afterthought. The amendment would cost the Exchequer absolutely nothing. It would delay nothing. It asks only that we think properly and on the record about the other airports in the State before the next round of aviation policy is set in stone. --- 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/2026-07-08/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:10+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-08