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UPROAR Press Release: 5 Sep 06
New airport, new city, new jobs, new homes?
With many economic commentators, domestic and international, warning of the serious implications of our overheated property market, solutions are being desperately sought by policy makers. There is considerable reluctance on the part of this government to risk a repeat of the consequences of earlier interventions that targeted property market investors and led to a shortage of rental properties with an inevitable explosion in rents. The fundamental problem is a shortage on the supply side, not of houses, but of land for housing.

There are thousands of acres of cutaway bogland available not very far from Dublin. It is land of very little value and its isolated location makes it currently unattractive for development, residential and other. How could such land be made attractive for development?

John Kasarda, a leading international expert on aviation economics, believes that "airports will shape business location and urban development in this century as much as motorways and roads did in the last century and railroads in the previous one". For him, accessibility, rather than location, is the new byword of successful urban development.

If it was decided to build a new state-of-the-art airport on such land, a new city could be developed (what Kasarda calls an Aerotropolis). It could all be designed so that residential communities are not put under flight-paths or too near runways. It makes much more economic sense to build such an airport than to continue the unsustainable development of an increasingly inaccessible Dublin Airport in an already very congested North County Dublin, where land is worth €2 million an acre.

Housing could be made available at a very reasonable rate given the cheap land at such an alternative site. And, as this land is state-owned, social housing could be easily and cheaply provided. Industrial development would be easily attracted to such an accessible site so that residents would find jobs within easy commuting distance. These and other spin-off benefits will not arise from the continued
uneconomic development of Dublin Airport. At the same time, if a second parallel runway is not built at Dublin Airport, thousands of acres of very valuable land, public and private, would be released for development at Dublin Airport and under the new flight-path that will not then be put over existing communities. It is a win-win option. See: www.norunway.com/cba.

On Sunday morning last on RTE Radio 1, Friends First Chief Economist Jim Power said a new state-of-the art airport should be built on a green-field site somewhere like Mullingar, in the middle of Ireland. It could be accessed by a high-speed rail link, and a good road network.

Minister Michéal Martin agreed that such alternatives should be considered and that it may be that we need a second airport to the south of Dublin. He was also concerned that our national planning would continue to be made with a "recession mindset" that underestimates our future needs because it fails to take due account of the real demographic and economic changes that are taking place.

Do he and his government have the foresight to think the unthinkable, and the courage to make it happen? If they fail, does the alternative team have what it takes?