Government efforts to lift the 32-million-a-year passenger limit on Dublin Airport could face legal challenges, a Cabinet Minister warned on Thursday.
A new law gives Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien the power to increase or axe the so-called passenger cap on the State’s biggest airport, which has sparked controversy and court action over the last two years.
But any order O’Brien makes could itself be open to legal challenge, his colleague, Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Peter Burke, has warned hospitality business representatives.
“There will be threats, it’s open to legal challenge,” Burke told the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation (ITIC) annual conference. He added that the Government hoped to avoid that risk.
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Burke said Government did not plan to tighten laws governing work permits for non-EU citizens in response to concerns about immigration. There are about 65,000 workers on permits in the Republic at the moment, the Minister noted.
“We do need workers to sustain economic growth,” he pointed out. Pressing the brakes on that economic growth would be a “dangerous thing to do”, Burke added.
The Minister argued that the Government had struck the right balance between tightening a previously lax policy and meeting economic needs.
ITIC chief executive Eoghan O’Mara Walsh noted that feedback from industry figures attending the conference showed the cost of doing business remained their main concern.
He welcomed that Government had put tourism under an economic portfolio, which the confederation believes is the right approach.
“When it comes to those issues like VAT and the cost of doing business, we’re talking to the right person and we’re talking to the right officials,” he said in his closing remarks.
O’Mara Walsh pointed out that since the 2025 conference, the Government had embarked on a new tourism policy, which aims for 50 per cent growth in visitor numbers by 2031.
He welcomed this, but stressed that to work, it would need “enabling policies” tackling issues such as the cost of doing business in the Republic.
The confederation chief argued that the sector remained the State’s biggest indigenous industry.
“There are large swathes of the country that would not have any other economic activity without tourism,” he said.
The ITIC is seeking the extension of the special 9 per cent VAT rate from catering to attractions, campsites and adventure tourism services in Budget 2027.
The confederation awarded the Eileen O’Mara Walsh Special Recognition Award to Siobhán McManamy, director of markets and partnerships with State body Tourism Ireland.
Announcing the award, ITIC chairwoman Anne O’Donoghue said winners had to have shown extensive commitment to tourism in their careers. Previous recipients include one-time International Airlines Group chief executive Willie Walsh.
