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Objection by Trevor Sargent T.D.
to
Fingal County Council 16 August 2005

Mr David O'Connor
Director of Services
Planning Department
Fingal County Council
Main Street
Swords
Co Dublin

Re: submission in relation to additional information provided by Dublin
Airport Authority F04A/1755

Dear Mr O'Connor

I write in relation to the application submitted by Dublin Airport Authority following receipt by Fingal County Council on 9th August 2005 of Additional Information relating to the proposal to build a parallel runway at Dublin Airport on a site of 261 hectares.

It would be reasonable to expect that any such proposal on this scale to construct a new runway would be made against the backdrop of a national aviation policy and would have regard to a number of criteria for which the Dublin Airport Authority would not have a specific remit. For
example, balanced regional development, limitations on airport development arising from residential settlement patterns and the issues of traffic congestion, noise and other atmospheric pollution and the often overlooked climate change strategy.

To consider an application such as F04A/1755 in the absence of an overall aviation policy is asking the local authority to make a decision in the dark. On this basis alone I urge that this application be turned down. The omissions in the Additional Information lodged present further
reasons as to why the application should be rejected. I state below several of these reasons:

1. the planning implications for the buying out of houses and the insulation of buildings, including schools, is not set out. In addition to this, the cost of such property acquirement and insulation work is not mentioned;

2. the fact that such a runway proposal contains forecasts of passenger numbers but fails to recognise the reality of peak oil or the prohibitive costs which will undoubtedly be associated with air travel in future again points to the flaws in this proposal. In spite of predictions by such experts as Goldman and Sachs which say that oil prices are going to continue rising, the Additional Information lodged states in Section 3, page 8, that "Aer Rianta does not make specific adjustments relating to these parameters" (for example oil prices) ...
"to avoid prejudicing long term forecasts". The Additional Information goes on to state in Section 4, page 7, that "the Dublin Airport Authority assumes that (variables, for example, oil prices) will stay reasonably constant in real terms." Notwithstanding the reality that oil
prices have been rising and in August 2005 stand at around $65 a barrel, the Additional Information states in Section 6, page 12, that it is an "unlikely event that oil price will stay above $45 a barrel through 2005."

3. a cursory attempt is made to refer to possible other locations for airport development as an alternative to expansion at Dublin Airport, but these only mention Gormanston and Baldonnel in Section 10 of the Additional Information. Given the lack of a national aviation policy and
recent reports from Bord na Mona that they are interested in airport development in the Midlands in cut away bog, it is clear that this Additional Information refers to a proposal which is piecemeal at best and destructive in the overall planning implications.

4. there is no doubt that the Additional Information is voluminous but it is questionable if issues such as de-icing and snowfalls are central to the consideration being given to the proposal. It may well be, however, that the Dublin Airport Authority, having disregarded any question relating to climate change, fully expects the temperate effects of the Gulf Stream to end and Ireland to be plunged into a climate such as Newfoundland. In this case any runway at Dublin Airport would be unusable for much of the year. Surely Fingal County Council should be
mindful of measures needed to prevent escalating climate change in the interests of a viable Dublin Airport as well as the wider community affected by it and on which it also depends for employment.

I therefore ask that the application for a parallel runway development at Dublin Airport be rejected and that Fingal County Council urge Government, as the Green Party has on many occasions, to develop a national aviation policy for Ireland.

Le gach dea-ghui

_______________________
TREVOR SARGENT, T.D.
Party Leader/Ceannaire