Council hits DAA with enforcement notice over passenger cap

Mike Finnerty

4 hours ago

Fingal County Council and the daa’s row over the passenger cap has escalated after Fingal County Council issued an enforcement notice to the daa.

Advertisements

Under the order, the daa now has a two-year period to comply with planning conditions, which were imposed by An Bord Pleanála over the passenger cap issue.

A spokesperson for Fingal County Council stated on Friday “the two-year period provides an opportunity for daa to progress their planning applications to increase passenger capacity at Dublin Airport or take such other steps as they consider appropriate to achieve compliance.”

The spokesperson said, “conditions were attached to planning permissions granted in 2008 for the construction of Terminal 2 and the extension of Terminal 1 and clearly stated that the combined capacity of both terminals must not exceed 32 million passengers per annum.”

Fingal County Council said that complaints were received that the conditions set out by ABP, were breached in 2023 and 2024.

As part of the legal process, the planning authority’s enforcement unit launched a formal investigation to assess is the daa were complying with the conditions set out by ABP.

A warning letter was then issued to the daa, and the daa were given the chance to respond, which they did.

However, relations between Fingal County Council and the daa have clearly reached an impasse.

The Fingal County Council spokesperson said “information submitted by daa does not constitute sufficient grounds to prevent further action. The investigation has determined that a breach of the relevant planning conditions has occurred and remains ongoing.”

“Fingal County Council, in accordance with its legal obligations as the planning authority, has issued an enforcement notice under Section 154 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. daa has been given two years to bring its operations into compliance.”

In a response, a statement from the daa rea “the fact that Fingal County Council is sending us an enforcement notice regarding 32 million passengers when passenger numbers will be north of 36 million this year and heading towards 40 million before the end of the decade is a sorry indictment of the mess that is the Irish planning system.”

The daa said that Dublin Airport is the “most vital piece of transport infrastructure on this island.”

“The system is quite simply broken and needs to be overhauled urgently,” they said.

The statement added, “until that happens, our national airport is hamstrung and can’t get on with its mandate to grow Ireland’s connectivity. The passenger cap on Dublin Airport needs to be removed once and for all and the airport needs to be reclassified as national strategic infrastructure, with decisions made by a national planning body and not a local authority.”

“When it took up office, the government committed to acting speedily to identify and implement a legislative solution that would remove the passenger cap from Dublin Airport. The Minister has since also said he will bring forward legislation to solve the cap issue, dispel uncertainty and maintain connectivity for Ireland – and this can’t happen quickly enough,” it added.