Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil leat as an ábhar tábhachtach seo a roghnú anocht. Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as teacht chun freagra a thabhairt air.
The background to the proposal for a new northern parallel runway at Dublin Airport is rooted in the enormous distress it is causing in the communities of north County Dublin and north Dublin generally. The chairman of the board of management of St. Nicholas of Myra national school said on 6 October last – this will be of interest to the Minister for Education and Science who is present – that the problems currently caused by Dublin Airport due to exhaust fuel and noise pollution are already unbearable. Teachers must suspend activity as pupils cannot be heard when there is peak noise level when planes are taking off. This occurs about 15 times per hour. This noise level is stirring up the problem of deafness, which I presume will be of interest to the Minister.
The Sunday Times recently reported a study of 350 children in Munich, Germany, which indicated that when the city airport closed, the performance of children in the vicinity improved significantly while those based near an airport that was being opened up disimproved significantly. Skills such as long-term memory, reading and speech perception were all affected, depending on proximity to the airport.
The community school in Portmarnock, which has more than 800 pupils, has found that exams, particularly foreign language exams, have had to be interrupted because of the noise from the airport, particularly when planes are taking off. This noise level also affects schools in St. Margaret's, Rivermeade, Malahide and Swords and the flight path of the proposed new runway would go directly over those schools, which would make matters even worse.
The proposal for a fourth runway would drown out the quality of life – the safeguarding of which should be uppermost in the Government's mind – of the more than 8,000 people in Portmarnock where, under the Fingal county development plan, the number of houses is set to double. Current runway capacity would allow expansion to 28 million passengers and even that would be enormous in terms of its impact. A cap is needed on the expansion of Dublin Airport, which should be a priority for the Government.
There are plans to push passenger numbers from 14 million currently to over 40 million a year. That would be a nightmare scenario, not only in terms of noise pollution, but also in terms of congestion. The terminal built in 1972 would have to quadruple in size or four such terminals would have to be built. The current 18,000 car parking spaces would have to rise to 50,000. Such development would lead to a loss of population and depression in areas outside Dublin, which are crying out for the kind of economic engine an airport would provide, and to the devaluation in the price of surrounding property.
A proposed new runway has far greater cost implications than Aer Rianta is currently considering. This Government and previous Governments have allowed Aer Rianta to overlook the associated problems of airport expansion. A previous Fianna Fáil-PD coalition Government gagged the Environmental Protection Agency in terms of addressing the problem of airport noise pollution and, as a result, residents are thwarted by the lack of legal obligations on Aer Rianta to provide, for example, housing insulation.
I, and the people living near Dublin Airport, warn the Government that the health effects of airport noise will mean that the courts will hold Aer Rianta, or whoever may privately operate the airport, to account, even if the Government does not. Counsel in a future court case would no doubt ask the question as to why further congestion was allowed to be concentrated in north Dublin with the building of another enormous runway when areas to the south and west of Dublin, the centre of Ireland and along the west coast find Dublin Airport more and more inaccessible. Once the Dublin Port Tunnel opens a lane of the M50 will effectively become a truck-way further obstructing traffic to and from Dublin Airport. Even the shrewd Michael O'Leary of Ryanair thinks this proposed new runway is a foolish flight of fancy by Aer Rianta.
Why has the Government, as the main shareholder on behalf of the people, been silent on this runway proposal? The most logical reason is that it wants to sell Dublin Airport as a potential mega airport, three or four times its current size, and its attitude is to hell with the chaos and havoc such a monstrosity would wreak on the nearby communities and, conversely, the isolation such development would cause to far off communities with no major airport within reach.
When does the Government intend to cap the size of Dublin Airport and when will it ensure that there is balanced development countrywide so that air traffic is not centred at Collinstown? The airport was built at that location in the first instance to avoid difficulties because there were then no housing estates nearby. I also appeal to the Minister for good government and sustainable planning in relation to this trojan horse for privatisation, which will lead to the ruination of people's lives in the future.
