Dublin Airport (Passenger Capacity) Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-08 ============================================================ Darragh O'Brien (FF), Dublin Fingal East Gabhaim buíochas leis na Seanadóirí agus cuirim fíorfháilte roimh na daoine sa Ghailearaí freisin. I thank Senators for the amendments tabled. I will explain why I will not be accepting any of them. Senator Harmon gave a contribution on the overall Bill and the impact on residents. I will deal with that during this session as I did in the Dáil. This Bill does not disapply any environmental considerations whatsoever. I know there is another amendment proposing that it goes through An Coimisiún Pleanála. I will explain that later as amendments are taken. I will first deal with regional airports. Senators Clifford-Lee, Scahill and others have put forward what is the correct position in that regard. All of our regional airports are growing. Cork Airport carried 3.24 million passengers. A €200 million investment is under way in Cork Airport right now. I have visited Cork Airport, which is a wonderful airport. Shannon Airport grew by 9% last year. The half-year figures that I have for Shannon up to the end of June show a 12% increase. Shannon Airport had 1.17 million passengers in the first half of this year. It is another very fine airport and very important to us. It actually had its busiest day in 17 years on 28 June when 11,400 passengers passed through it. I was in Kerry Airport yesterday and on Sunday. Kerry Airport is projecting over 500,000 passengers this year. Ireland West Airport is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. That airport will be touching 1 million passengers. We are investing in and supporting these airports through the regional airports programme. I would be quite happy at another time to go through that in more detail. We just brought forward the regional airports programme for 2026 to 2030, providing for €45 million worth of investment in our regional airports. I have changed the criteria within that to increase the passenger numbers to 3 million. This will allow Shannon, for argument's sake, to participate in the regional airports programme, all of whose participants are receiving funding. This year, Shannon got €1.9 million, Ireland West Airport got €2.8 million and Kerry Airport got €2.8 million. We should not forget Donegal, which is a very important airport for connectivity for the north west. It carries a smaller number of passengers but still receives about €400,000. With the new public service obligation, PSO, flight there, we have made sure to maintain the schedule that was in place and so important to residents in Donegal. To talk from an all-island perspective, we have other airports on the island. A Dublin-Derry route will start in October of this year through the Government's shared island initiative, reconnecting a route that has not been in operation since 2011. I assure Senators that it is not a case of Dublin growing instead of the others. The reality is that we have a growing population. Everybody recognises that we are an island nation; that is stating the obvious fact. Connectivity is critical, and the aviation sector is also critical for jobs. I grew up beside the airport and have lived beside it my whole life. Tens of thousands of people have jobs at the airport and derive good incomes to support their families through the airport. There are about 130,000 direct and indirect jobs through Dublin Airport, with about 3% of GDP generated from that campus alone. It is a critical piece of national infrastructure. I have been very clear on this in the Dáil as well. There have been issues with how the Dublin Airport Authority, DAA, has operated with regard to its neighbours, including near neighbours to the west of the campus in the St. Margaret's and the Ward area as well as on the eastern side in Portmarnock and Malahide. Over the years, the DAA has not dealt with them well. The aircraft noise competent authority, ANCA's decision on noise has been out for 14 weeks. That is an important decision out for public consultation. I have written to the airport and have engaged with it. The airport has a new chairperson and soon will have a new chief executive also. I have said very clearly that the voluntary purchase scheme needs to be improved for those who cannot sustain their households and lives in close proximity to the airport. The noise insulation scheme needs to expand. That will happen post the 14 weeks of the public consultation on the noise decision. We have also protected the planning application that is with Fingal County Council right now. It is known as the infrastructure application and actually seeks to increase the passenger numbers to 40 million. Importantly, it also seeks to improve the facilities on the campus at Dublin Airport. We are not reaching into that at all. That is being fully protected, as is clearly stated in the Bill. Regarding the amendment, I have already mentioned where the regional airports are and they are all growing, which is very good to see. Cork and Ireland West airports grew by 13% last year and they can grow more. There are now over 40 routes flying out of Shannon for the first time since the early 1990s. Those regional airports need to be hungry for business because, as Senator Clifford-Lee right said, I cannot, even if I wished to, direct an airline to fly out of a particular airport. The commercial decisions that airlines make are way beyond any powers that any Minister has. I am absolutely in earnest when I say that the operation of Dublin Airport and the manner in which the DAA deals with local residents have to improve, and I will make sure that they do. The people directly affected need to be listened to and solutions need to be found. There is an economic and strategic imperative for us to continue allowing airports to grow in a sustainable way. I am not being overly critical because the Members have put forward their own points of view and I respect them. The Labour Party position as put forward in the Dáil is effectively to bring the numbers back down to 32 million. The internationally recognised rule of thumb on jobs to passenger numbers is that every 1 million passengers leads to about 1,000 direct jobs. If we were to go back to 32 million, I think Senators in opposition and, indeed, in government would be calling me in and asking why we had lost 5,000 direct jobs in Dublin Airport. That is what would happen. An Investec report published in, I believe, 2022 said that to maintain the cap at 32 million between now and 2030 would jeopardise up to about 19,000 jobs. That is the reality of it. I support the workers in the airport. I am from the community myself. The airport has to grow in a sustainable way. It has to operate as a good neighbour but I recognise that it has not always done so. I have said in the Dáil and am quite happy to put on the record of the House here that, post the passing of this Bill and when a number of legal cases ongoing at the moment are dispensed with, I will be initiating an independent assessment of flight paths. A number of residents have been affected where flight paths for which planning was approved have not been adhered to, with the authority then seeking approval for retention. That is not the way to operate. I support jobs within the airport. Connectivity for our country is critical. This Bill is specifically about Dublin Airport. As Senators Scahill and Clifford-Lee have rightly said, this is not instead of regional airport growth. The facts speak for themselves with regard to the regional airport growth numbers. I was only in Kerry yesterday. There are further really impressive expansion plans for Kerry Airport. Ireland West, Cork and Shannon airports are all growing. Work is also under way in Waterford Airport, which is good to see. Donegal Airport is operating a very important service for people in the region. With that said, a Chathaoirligh, I am not in a position to accept any of the amendments but specifically amendment No. 2. --- 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