Dublin Airport hits out at council's enforcement notice
Dublin Airport's operator has been hit with a planning enforcement notice for breaching the highly contested passenger cap, describing it as 'a sorry indictment of the mess that is the Irish planning system'.
Describing the airport as the most vital piece of transport infrastructure in Ireland, a DAA spokesman said: 'The system is quite simply broken and needs to be overhauled.'
The airport is limited to handling a maximum of 32 million passengers a year under a condition of the planning permission granted in 2007 for Terminal 2. Dublin Airport. Pic: Getty Images
However, the DAA and many airlines have challenged that limit, saying it is limiting the country's economic growth and could result in higher fares for passengers.
Earlier this month, Dublin Airport said it was expecting more than ten million passengers to pass through during the peak months.
A High Court-imposed pause on the cap, won by the airlines, means more than 36 million people could use the airport this year. Last year, the airport handled 33.3million passengers. Dublin Airport. Pic: Getty Images
Fingal County Council confirmed yesterday it had issued a planning enforcement notice to DAA for breaching the cap.
The council is reported to have received complaints from 60 individuals about the alleged planning breach.
In a statement, the council said its enforcement notice included a two-year period to comply with planning conditions imposed by An Bord Pleanála over passenger capacity at Dublin Airport. Pic: Mark Gusev/Shutterstock
A council spokesman said: '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.'
Mayor of Fingal Tom O'Leary, a Fine Gael councillor, said the county council had to follow the legal process.
He continued: 'This makes it even more urgent for the Government to assist in any way that they can to try and sort out the capacity issue at Dublin Airport.
They need to do whatever they can to ensure that the airport can grow in an orderly manner and that the residents around it are looked after.'
However, the DAA said that until changes were made to the cap, Ireland's national airport was 'hamstrung' and could not get on with its mandate to grow Ireland's connectivity.
'The airport needs to be reclassified as national strategic infrastructure, with decisions made by a national planning body and not a local authority,' a spokesman said
The High Court pause on the cap is likely to continue for a year while certain matters related to aircraft take-off and landing slot allocations are examined by the European Court of Justice.
The Government plans to remove the cap through legislation, starting in autumn.
Ryanair has called for urgent action from the Government, stating that local authorities should not oversee national transport infrastructure.
A Department of Transport spokesman said it was aware of the enforcement notice.
They continued: 'The minister has recently reiterated the importance of DAA continuing to engage proactively with the planning authority and the Aircraft Noise Competent Authority to facilitate progress on the two planning applications DAA has lodged.'
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