Protesters tear up Bill at Dublin Airport cap demonstration

A copy of proposed legislation was torn in two as protesters gathered to oppose plans to scrap the passenger cap at Dublin Airport, in a demonstration that campaigners say reflects growing alarm over climate and public health risks.

Campaigners including Children’s Rights over Flights (CROF) and Irish Doctors for the Environment (IDE) staged the protest last Wednesday (18th) against the expansion of aviation and the proposed lifting of the cap, as a Bill that would allow the Minister for Transport to remove it moves through pre-legislative scrutiny.

Protesters held banners, chanted “More dirty air, that’s not fair” and delivered speeches during the demonstration.

Two participants tore up a copy of the Bill to symbolise their opposition, citing concerns over increased fossil fuel pollution and climate harms, which they say would negatively impact children’s futures and public health both globally and in Ireland.

Campaigners highlighted that since 1990 Ireland’s population has grown by 44 per cent, while emissions from aviation have increased by 500 per cent.

Louise O’Leary of CROF, a mother and health professional from Dublin, said aviation emissions are contributing to worsening climate change and its impact on future generations.

“Aviation fossil fuel pollution is not magical. It contributes to worsening climate change and appalling harms facing our kids and grandkids, like all fossil fuel pollution,” she said.

“The State’s duty, and the Minister’s duty, is to protect children from these harms and prioritise rapid and effective emissions cuts, not to prioritise undemocratic and reckless demands of highly polluting Irish and North American airlines.

“We’re calling on the Government to fulfil its obligations to children and refrain from such a backwards and harmful plan, and withdraw this Bill.”

Orlagh Gaynor, a physiotherapist living in Drogheda who volunteers with IDE, said Ireland is legally bound to meet emissions reduction targets.

“Ireland has legally binding targets in emission reductions that we are obligated to achieve.

“These targets exist to protect human health,” she said.

“As healthcare professionals, it is our duty to follow the science and advocate for public health.

“The science has made it very clear that there is a great cost to life associated with carbon emissions and climate change.

“One preventable death is too many. Lifting the passenger cap will cause unprecedented harm to health, both here in Ireland and around the world.”

The proposed Bill would centralise power with the Minister for Transport to remove the passenger cap and prevent any future cap from being introduced.

It cites ‘serious harm’ related to the economy and the ‘public interest’ as reasons for abolishing the limit.

CROF said it submitted a Freedom of Information request seeking records dating from January 1, 2025, relating to any evaluation by the Department of Transport or the Minister on the potential impacts of removing the cap. These included greenhouse gas emissions, the public interest in the context of climate change, and the economic implications of outbound tourism.

The group said it received a response indicating that such records did not exist.

Campaigners also pointed to what they described as a ‘travel deficit’, with Central Statistics Office data indicating €5.1 billion more left the Irish economy through outbound travel than was brought in by visitors in 2023, a figure highlighted by Opportunity Green as equating to 1 per cent of GDP.

They said CSO data suggests visitor numbers to Ireland have remained largely static and that domestic spending may be decreasing despite record passenger numbers at Dublin Airport.

The Dublin Airport Authority’s planning application to increase the passenger cap from 32 million to 40 million annually indicated that the change could result in an additional 750,000 metric tonnes of emissions by 2031, representing an increase of around 22 per cent.

Campaigners argued that the current Bill goes further by proposing to remove the cap entirely, despite what they described as a lack of “adequate, comprehensive or scientifically-based assessment of environmental and climate impacts”, a concern also raised by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment during a visit to Ireland in February.

During the protest, a participant read aloud a joint open letter from CROF and IDE, which had been delivered earlier in the day to Minister O’Brien.

The letter was signed by a number of organisations including ActionAid, Oxfam, the Irish Cycling Campaign and the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice.

It called for “an urgent halt to the Government’s intervention to remove the Dublin Airport passenger cap” and for “the development of an aviation policy that is aligned with Ireland’s climate and human rights obligations, and with best available science”.

The letter also expressed concern at what it described as attempts within the Bill to legislate an exemption from climate obligations, referring to language stating that any function carried out under the proposed Act would be exempt from provisions of the Climate Act 2015.