Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil leis an Aire Stáit as teacht isteach chun an cheist a phlé. Like the Minister for Education and Science I wish success to all those involved in examinations. Students who are affected by air traffic noise around Dublin Airport particularly need our good wishes as it is not easy for them to study.
The purpose of this motion is to focus on the folly of a plan for a further runway at Dublin Airport which will lead to air traffic flying directly over the Portmarnock area in my constituency. Ryanair strongly opposes the new runway. It has been planned in the absence of an aviation policy for Ireland, a wider study of the aviation needs of the State and an environmental impact study. Many people are asking whether this rushed plan for a runway has more to do with privatisation of the airport than serving the wider needs of the community and the country in general.
That brings me to the proposal by Aer Rianta to foist another runway on the communities near Dublin Airport which has reminded many about the lack of regulations governing airport noise. It is still one of the greatest scandals of the last decade that the Environmental Protection Agency pointedly failed to accept responsibility and is not legally required to accept responsibility for airport noise. Is it not strange, for example, that a car driver can be prosecuted for blowing a horn late at night, yet aeroplanes can come and go with impunity throughout the night?
The effect of not having a policy on airport noise is shown in letters which the Minister got from my constituents. One letter stated that the person was woken from their sleep at 4.29 a.m. by an aircraft flying past and that they were unable to go back to sleep for over an hour due to subsequent aeroplanes at 4.42 a.m. and 5.01 a.m. Another letter sent to me on Good Friday stated that the person concerned was awakened from their sleep by the roar of aircraft leaving Dublin Airport at approximately 7 a.m. The person counted at least 25 other aeroplanes roaring by up to 8 a.m. The noise from the aircraft was particularly loud that morning and the person felt a different flight path nearer to Pormarnock had been used as aircraft leave by a similar route nearly every morning of the week with a much reduced noise level. There are many such accounts of noise from aircraft.
It is unacceptable that the Government does not have a policy on airport noise, unlike other countries which have taken the issue more seriously. Aer Rianta has acknowledged in writing that there are deviations from flight paths. However, it seems to be able to make such deviations with impunity. There are plans to introduce monitoring equipment, but we need to know where it will be used. This is another case of Aer Rianta policing itself. Pilots at Dublin Airport report that there are curfews at other airports around the world. However, there is none in Ireland. We need to look at international experience in order that we can provide a reasonable quality of life for the people living in the area.
There is a need for a wider aviation policy which is both innovative and based on the sustainability of air transport. It is worth noting, although it may seem strange to people now, that there is more focus on air cargo transport in Holland, England and the United States. Airships are used which rely on a non-combustible gas, which is more modern and safe than the ill-fated one used in the 1930s. Aeroplane engines must generate thousands of pounds of thrust to get the heavy vehicle off the ground, but the modern airship needs little power to launch it into the air currents above. It, therefore, requires only a fraction of the fuel and generates only a fraction of the noise. We must, when framing an aviation policy from a strategic point of view as an island nation, look at the innovative means by which people are developing air transport which is both sustainable and takes into account the sensitivities of communities living close to the airport. I ask for this to be taken into account in the context of looking again at the folly of another runway at Dublin Airport.
