UPROAR
as Airport Runway decision imminent ? The Dublin Airport Authority has been slammed this month by a vocal local community group, based in Dublin North East, who claim the Authority's estimations of job growth related to a developed airport are grossly exaggerated. Further, the group contend that newer statements relating to projected employment seriously diverge from those presented to An Bord Pleanala at recent Oral Hearings into both the second terminal and the second runway at Dublin Airport. The final decision on the DAA's planning application for a new parallel runway was delayed following a request from An Bord Pleanala for additional information regarding aircraft noise, noise contours, night noise and ground operations. This information was submitted in March this year, and a decision is expected in coming weeks. On Terminal 2, the Authority says that it is crucial that a final decision is made imminently in order to achieve the Autumn 2009 deadline for its completion. Planning permission for T2 was granted by Fingal County Council in August 2006, but was subsequently appealed by seven parties, resulting in a three-week Oral Hearing into the project. According to the DAA, T2 will cater for up to 15 million passengers per year, bringing overall airport capacity to a potential 35 million passengers per annum. While UPROAR
continues a campaign of opposition to both the new parallel runway and
Terminal 2, the DAA maintain that both are vital for the future, positive,
economic development of the airport and the workforce it supports. Most
recently, the group have cast doubt over projected employment levels
at the airport. Declan Collier, CEO of the Dublin Airport Authority
is reported in a national newspaper this summer as saying, "economic
studies indicate that airports generally support While conceding
that this may well be the case, the Portmarnock based opposition group
claim that these jobs would not be extra jobs for the Irish economy.
In fact, they would just displace other jobs and hinder business development
in Fingal, rather than bring economic benefits, they claim. The group
put just this argument before An Bord Pleanala at the Oral Hearing earlier
this year. However, valid claim or not, UPROAR contend that this latest
jobs projection is not what Mr Collier stated UPROAR are highly critical in their assessment of the DAA's route to both sets of figures. According to spokesperson, Matt Harley, the Authority gets this small figure by assuming impossible gains in labour productivity in the future. "Because so many jobs will supposedly be lost to productivity gains, it allows them to scare people by claiming, that if the new runway, terminal, etc., are not built, total jobs at Dublin Airport will actually fall by 2,500 by 2025 even though passenger numbers will increase to 28 million," he slams. "Do the unions at Dublin Airport know they are expected to double productivity?" he queries. "It also allows the DAA to understate the road traffic impacts of airport employees, most of them use their cars to get to and from work, adding to the inevitable chaos on the M1/M50 road network. The Metro will help but will not solve the extra road traffic problems." These distortions
of fact were exposed by UPROAR at the runway and terminal oral hearings
at An Bord Pleanala (ABP), says Harley, yet the DAA's consultants continued
to argue that their figures were correct, he says. Declan Collier has
reverted to the "good news" version of job creation at Dublin
Airport, adds a scathing Harley. "He now talks of an extra 10,000
jobs to cater for an extra 12 mppa or so by 2020. That is nearly three
times the figure given by his people at ABP for 2025!" Says Mr
Harley, while the DAA CEO assumes about 850 jobs per mppa, he forgets
to make any adjustment for productivity gains by 2020. "What happened
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