Dublin Airport (Passenger Capacity) Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-08 ============================================================ Joe Conway (IND), Cultural and Educational Panel I would like to take up the theme that was adverted to by Senator Higgins. I am looking at a prediction from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council to the effect that between now and 2030, we are going to have to open the envelope and look at a bill for anything between €3 billion and €6 billion. Irish taxpayers will be faced with paying this money because the country is going to remain off track on its emissions up to 2030. I do not know where we are going to get that money and keep health services, education services and all of the other services on track. It is a horrendous spectre to have before us. I am just wondering. While I did not hear it myself, I am told there was an interview this morning with Dr. Eimear Cotter, the head of the EPA. Dr. Cotter was rather glum about the projected passenger numbers of 40 million and possibly 60 million at Dublin Airport and the collateral damage to what are euphemistically called the "receptors" out there. It is a case of being allowed to mark your own homework. The EPA is not allowed to monitor the particulate matter or emissions at Dublin Airport. It is apparently the DAA that does this. It is a classic case of correcting your own homework. There should be checks and balances in these things. I am not a hanging-from-the-clothesline environmentalist. I try to see a sensible middle line. However, allowing the offender to measure the emissions and particulate matter at Dublin Airport rather than employing the EPA to do an independent assessment just seems bizarre. While I am on my feet, I will refer to the argument the Minister made in relation to the regional airports and the encouraging rate of growth in their passenger numbers. That is delightful to hear and we all know it but it is a slightly disingenuous argument. How would the numbers have grown without the preponderance of investment and development at Dublin Airport? On the 5,000 jobs that would be lost, what about the jobs that would be gained in rural Ireland if the regional airports were allowed to develop? We should not say that Dublin Airport is the only thing that can generate economic activity. That cannot be the case. There is a lot of skewed thinking on this. There are many upset people out there, with whom I am minded to agree in many instances, who are under the impression that this is not good legislation. When we had the debate last week, on 1 July, I listed for the Minister of State who was here at the time a series of critical questions that needed to be answered. I got a reply from the Minister's office today saying that none of these assessments were done. --- 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