{"id":331646,"date":"2026-02-11T11:27:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T11:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/331646\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T11:27:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T11:27:07","slug":"residents-react-over-approval-to-scrap-dublin-airport-passenger-cap-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/331646\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents react over approval to scrap Dublin Airport passenger cap \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Government\u2019s decision to formally approve the lifting of Dublin Airport\u2019s<\/a> passenger cap has been described as an \u201cabsolute disgrace\u201d by a local activist. <\/p>\n

Plans to scrap the contentious 32 million annual passenger cap at Dublin Airport inched forward on Tuesday with long-awaited Cabinet approval for draft laws to do away with the planning restriction.<\/p>\n

The cap has been in place since 2007 over concerns of issues such as traffic congestion. In more recent years, the cap has been breached such as in 2025, when a new record of more than 36 million passengers passed through the airport.<\/p>\n

David Walton of the Ballyboughal Community Council said increasing the number of flights coming into Dublin when it was already \u201csaturated,\u201d was \u201cludicrous\u201d.<\/p>\n

He believed more focus should be placed on prioritising and incentivising people to travel in and out Ireland\u2019s other airports, as Dublin Airport handled more than 80 per cent of all flights in Ireland in 2025.<\/p>\n

He said the removal of the passenger cap allowed \u201cunlimited growth without the proper management in place\u201d and was an \u201cabsolute disgrace\u201d. <\/p>\n

In his village, he knows of 140 homeowners who are \u201cdeeply concerned and upset\u201d due to the noise they are experiencing as planes fly overhead.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t realise it that we\u2019re further from the airport here than Blackrock or Sandymount.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Dublin Airport passenger cap set to be scrappedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He described the noise as \u201cintrusive\u201d and explained its impacts on schools, children with neurodivergence and people who work night shifts. \u201cIt just follows you everywhere,\u201d said the self-employed business owner.<\/p>\n

He believed some people will move out of the area due to this issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re collateral damage,\u201d said Walton, aged in his 60s.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just is beyond belief of any objective standards that they would continue to increase the number of flights coming out and into Dublin. It just makes no sense, spatially, economically, environmentally.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople of north county Dublin are pulling their hair out over this decision because it just doesn\u2019t make any sense,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Liam O\u2019Gradaigh of the St Margaret\u2019s The Ward Residents Group has lived in the area his whole life, as had his father and his grandfather. \u201cWe\u2019ve been living here before the airport ever arrived.\u201d<\/p>\n

He explained that the group has no issue with flights being increased, once there was \u201cproper mitigation in place for those who are mostly affected\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"GreenGreen Party leader Roderic O’Gorman criticises Government decision to introduce legislation to lift the passenger cap at Dublin Airport. Photograph: Gr\u00e1inne N\u00ed Aodha\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand the value of the airport but what we\u2019re about is the proper sustainability and proper planning of the area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noise from flights over head and near his home is the largest issue that he deals with every day.<\/p>\n

He described it as a piercing noise \u201cthat just rattles the house\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s absolutely no way once you\u2019re woken by it … you\u2019re getting back to sleep. Its well known aircraft noise, the frequency and pitch of it, is the most annoying of all transport noises.\u201d<\/p>\n

He described the noise over the last month in particular as \u201chell\u201d.<\/p>\n

He is affected mostly by arrival flights when the winds are easterly.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Darragh O\u2019Brien wants legislation for removing Dublin Airport passenger cap fast-trackedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the last month or so, there have been easterly winds and they\u2019re literally flying over our house on arrival, on to the North Runway … and the noise is just horrendous,\u201d said O\u2019Gradaigh, who works in the technology sector.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Gradaigh said currently the North Runway cannot be used between 11pm and 7am, but approval has been sought to use the runway from 6am to 12am.<\/p>\n

He said the residents group and others are judicially reviewing this.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been hell for the last month and there was an eight-hour window, so I couldn\u2019t imagine what it\u2019s like for a six-hour window.\u201d<\/p>\n

The residents group has made three main proposals to help residents stay in the area; insulate their homes \u201cto the absolute best ability to protect their health\u201d, make improvements to the buy out scheme for those who want to leave and for part of the site at Thornton Hall to be reserved for people to relocate to. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know we can\u2019t stand in the way, but that doesn\u2019t mean we should be walked all over,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0DAA weighed cutting business jets at Dublin Airport to comply with passenger capOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Local Independent Cllr Cathal Boland said the scrapping of the passenger cap did not come as any \u201cgreat surprise\u201d to him.<\/p>\n

He said two big concerns for his constituents were the noise levels and that \u201crules have been broken\u201d by the DAA, such as with the breaching of the passenger cap.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the DAA, the operator of Dublin and Cork airports, said it welcomed the Government\u2019s commitment to bring forward legislation to remove the passenger cap by the end of 2026. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a vital step to protect Ireland\u2019s connectivity, support tourism and sustain jobs and economic growth across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

It said it has invested more than \u20ac23 million on insulating homes and schools.<\/p>\n

It also said 41 homes were eligible for the voluntary purchase scheme at 30 per cent above market value, with nine homes already purchased and another 10 currently progressing through the process. More than 200 homes and five schools have received acoustic insulation.<\/p>\n

It said its noise and flight tracking team has installed 32 noise monitoring terminals in local communities and neighbouring counties with seven mobile noise monitors deployed to locations nominated by community groups. Its community engagement team conducted 290 home and school visits in 2025, according to the spokesman.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also want to reassure our neighbours that all flight operations from Dublin Airport are monitored for compliance closely. We remain committed to open, ongoing engagement with residents to ensure our operations are as considerate and responsible as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government\u2019s decision to formally approve the lifting of Dublin Airport\u2019s passenger cap has been described as an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,38997,52,26,18,13,14,3428,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-331646","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-daa","11":"tag-dublin","12":"tag-dublin-airport","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-featured-news","15":"tag-featurednews","16":"tag-government","17":"tag-headlines","18":"tag-ie","19":"tag-ireland","20":"tag-latest-news","21":"tag-latestnews","22":"tag-main-news","23":"tag-mainnews","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116051761438469641","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}