{"id":549208,"date":"2026-06-23T01:18:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T01:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/549208\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T01:18:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T01:18:18","slug":"residents-seek-injunction-to-force-daa-to-comply-with-dublin-airport-passenger-cap-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/549208\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents seek injunction to force DAA to comply with Dublin Airport passenger cap \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A group of north Dublin<\/a> residents wants the High Court<\/a> to force the operator of Dublin Airport<\/a> to comply with a controversial cap of 32 million passengers a year.<\/p>\n

The law suit, brought by St Margaret\u2019s the Ward Environmental DAC against State airport operator DAA<\/a>, came before the court just days after the Government announced its intention to proceed with legislation aimed at scrapping the controversial cap. <\/p>\n

The cap has been in place for almost two decades, having originally been introduced by planners in 2007 over concerns about traffic congestion, among other issues.<\/p>\n

However, in recent years, the threshold has been breached. More than 36 million passengers passed through the airport in 2025, setting a record.<\/p>\n

Enforcement of the cap has been suspended pending the outcome of litigation currently before the Court of Justice of the European Union<\/a> (CJEU).<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Law paving the way for scrapping of Dublin Airport passenger cap approvedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Airlines and DAA have been urging the Government to end the cap before a CJEU ruling forces regulators to implement it. <\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Minister for Transport Darragh O\u2019Brien<\/a> said he had secured Government approval to publish the Dublin Airport (Passenger Capacity) Bill 2026 and progress it to enactment as soon as possible. <\/p>\n

He said the legislation would give him \u201cthe power to address the 32-million-passenger cap\u201d at Dublin Airport.<\/p>\n

Before Judge Richard Humphreys on Monday, several parties, including airlines and the Irish Aviation Authority<\/a>, expressed their intention to join injunction proceedings brought by St Margaret\u2019s the Ward Environmental against DAA. Fingal County Council<\/a>, the airport\u2019s planning authority, is an intended notice party.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for the residents\u2019 group sought an adjournment in order to take instruction on the applications to join the proceedings. <\/p>\n

According to their court documents, the residents, who live close to the airport, are seeking an injunction to force DAA\u2019s compliance with the passenger cap, and a similar order relating to restrictions on night-time flights. <\/p>\n

They say the breaches of limits represent unauthorised developments. <\/p>\n

In a sworn statement to the court, Liam \u00d3 Gradaigh, on behalf of the residents, said DAA had been operating in breach of the limits on passengers and night-time flights for the past number of years, resulting in \u201chugely negative effects on local residents and the environment\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u00d3 Gradaigh, a software manager from Ward Cross, the Ward, Co Dublin, said it was unclear what measures DAA had taken or intended to take to comply with the passenger cap. He described the approach of planning authorities in ensuring compliance as \u201cwholly unsatisfactory and ineffectual\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe planning authority\u2019s response fails to take adequate or any cognisance of the damage the noncompliance has caused, is causing or is likely to cause to the environment,\u201d he said. \u201cHence [St Margaret\u2019s the Ward Environmental] finds it necessary to bring the present proceedings.\u201d <\/p>\n

The case will return to court in two weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of north Dublin residents wants the High Court to force the operator of Dublin Airport to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,38997,2914,26,18,122681,10410,10476,19,17,12356],"class_list":["post-549208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-daa","tag-darragh-o-brien","tag-dublin-airport","tag-eire","tag-european-court-of-justice","tag-fingal-county-council","tag-high-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-aviation-authority"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549208","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=549208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}