UPROAR Press Release: 22 Nov 2006

Dublin Airport's expansion is terminal for M50!

UPROAR is not opposed to providing good terminal facilities for the harassed passengers passing through Dublin Airport, but that is not what the proposed Terminal 2 is about.

It is part of a development package intended to take passenger throughput to 60 million per annum from the present 20 million. That is an unsustainable development from many points of view, not the least of which is road traffic congestion. The €1.1 billion upgrade of the M50 will be undone and the whole road network around the airport will be grid-locked, making access to the airport itself very difficult. The NRA has objected to the IKEA development at Ballymun on those very same grounds and the traffic implications of the airport's expansion plan are many times worse than those of IKEA.

The Airport's expansion plan which includes a new parallel runway and two terminals will waste €4.5 billion of public and private assets whereas a second airport serving the Greater Dublin Area would be a very viable investment bringing lots of additional benefits that will not happen at Dublin Airport. These would include jobs where they are needed, a new town with more affordable housing, not built under a new
flightpath, and good rail and road links rather than gridlock. If well designed, such a new state-of-the-art airport could be a real pleasure for passengers rather than the purgatory of Dublin Airport.

Such an option was not of course considered by the airport planners who care only to push their "Dublin First" agenda regardless of National Spatial Strategy, Regional Development and Decentralisation. They are supposed to undertake rigorous evaluations of their proposals and alternatives to ensure "value for money" according to Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen, who said so again on 16 November last when he released his 2007 Estimates. They have done no such study.

This reckless expansion at Dublin Airport is actually driven by a hidden subsidy of about €18 per passenger, because passengers do not have to pay for the use of the 2,500 acre site of Dublin Airport owned by taxpayers and worth €5 billion. That is why Cork and Shannon Airports cannot compete against Dublin's current charge of only €6.34. If this expansion package is approved, Dublin Airport will become a huge aviation monopoly wiping out any chance of competition. Can
privatisation of Dublin Airport be far behind?

UPROAR's appeal to An Bord Pleanála against Fingal County Council's granting of planning permission for Terminal 2 can be read at www.norunway.com/t2.