UPROAR
Press Release: Pat Rabbitte, T.D., Leader of the Labour Party, and Brendan Ryan, Labour Party candidate for the Dublin North constituency in next year's general election, met with UPROAR* at the Portmarnock Golf Links Hotel on Friday evening last. Fingal County Council has granted planning permission to the Dublin Airport Authority to build a new parallel runway at Dublin Airport with a flightpath directly over the 10,000 people of Portmarnock. UPROAR has appealed that decision to An Bord Pleanála and our appeal can be read here: http://norunway.com/bp/bp.htm. As well as its catastrophic consequences for local communities in Portmarnock, Swords, Kinsaley and Malahide, UPROAR has pointed to the many ways the proposed runway runs counter to the national interest with its massive waste of €3 billion of public and private assets. UPROAR has been calling for a proper independent evaluation of this proposal to be undertaken with due attention being given to alternative locations for runway development, for example a second airport for the Greater Dublin Area on a green-field site away from established communities. Such an evaluation is required by the Department of Finance which has strict guidelines for the appraisal of public investment proposals. Last October, Finance Minister Brian Cowen announced even tougher project appraisal measures, supposedly to ensure better value for money. However, Transport Minister Martin Cullen continues to refuse such a study. UPROAR's main purpose in meeting Pat Rabbitte was to ask him to support UPROAR's campaign against the new runway at Dublin Airport and to clarify the Labour Party's position on it. Brendan Ryan has already expressed his strong support for UPROAR, but the Labour Party's position was less clear. Labour councillors split down the middle last year on a vote in Fingal County Council to delete the parallel runway from the County Development Plan. Pat Rabbitte was touring the constituency to hear what issues are of most concern to the people of Dublin North. Deputy Rabbitte said he had been well briefed on the runway by his Labour Party colleagues from the area, Peter Coyle, Sean and Brendan Ryan and Henry Haughton, but had come to hear UPROAR puts its case to him directly. Deputy Rabbitte agreed with UPROAR's call for a proper cost benefit analysis of the runway to be carried out to determine where best to locate new airport capacity, if really needed. He said it was the least UPROAR could expect, and indeed it was the least he himself would expect. He went on to say: "It does seem remarkable that something that will impact on so many people should have proceeded to the stage that it has, without a proper cost benefit analysis. That seems to me to be wrong. If I were the Minister for Transport in the morning, I would want to see a proper cost benefit analysis before I would do anything." Brendan Ryan, a general election candidate, met UPROAR on 4th May last when he committed himself to taking every opportunity to be an advocate for UPROAR's cause. "We urgently need a strategic evaluation of our airport infrastructural needs", he said. On that occasion he also said it was: "totally illogical, but not surprising given its record on wasting money, that this government has not proceeded with a cost benefit analysis". * United Portmarnock Residents Opposing Another Runway (UPROAR) is a sub-committee of the Portmarnock Community Association. |
