Removing the passenger cap at Dublin Airport will put it in direct conflict with housebuilders for access to electricity, water and sewerage, TDs and Senators have been told.
Under the terms of the Dublin Airport Passenger Capacity Bill, currently before the Oireachtas, the Minister for Transport would have the power to amend or revoke any planning condition that limits passenger capacity at the airport.
The current annual limit of passengers is 32 million, but numbers exceeded 36 million last year. The airport and the Government are seeking to remove the cap.
On Wednesday, local groups in north Co Dublin told members of the Oireachtas Committee on Transport that up to 30,000 people in communities stretching from Ashbourne, Co Meath, to Ballyboughal, Co Dublin, were already suffering the ill effects of low flights. Conditions, they said, would be made worse if the cap on numbers was removed.
READ MORE
Gareth O’Brien of the North Runway Technical Group, a community organisation that counts pilots among its members, said water pressure in Swords was already being reduced “to feed the airport.”
O’Brien said that “as well as aircraft noise, every passenger creates a load on the ESB, the water supply, the sewage network, and the treatment plant at Ringsend, all needed for new housing across Greater Dublin.
“This Bill removes the only control on that load, giving the members of the Oireachtas a choice: choose unlimited aviation or choose housing. This Bill puts them in direct conflict.”
O’Brien, who said his group included pilots, engineers, aviation safety specialists and affected residents, said much of the disturbance caused by planes was due to a flight path that required them to turn after take off, flying at low altitudes over surrounding communities.
He said a planning permission in 2007 was based on flights taking off in a westerly direction for five miles before turning, which would put them at a far greater height when passing over local communities.
“Our members depend on Dublin Airport. I am not here to argue against airport growth. Our objective here is to show you what happens when nobody in the system has the expertise to manage it,” he said.
“We are not calling for the runway to be shut down. But we are saying that the Oireachtas should understand the scale of what went wrong before this Bill removes the last control.”
Dr Niamh Maher, an expert on the effects of aircraft noise pollution on human health and a member of the St Margarets The Ward Residents’ Associaton, another local group, said there were studies which showed the effects could include high blood pressure, cardio vascular impairment and strokes.
She said noise impact from aircraft was more significant on human health than that of road or rail traffic, impacting on the brain and arteries and worsening pre-existing conditions.
She said the effects on children included depression and anxiety disorders.
