Toole pledge to keep fighting DAA plans to lift restriction on night time flights
Newly elected TD Gillian Toole says residents will keep fighting Dublin Airport Authority plans to lift restriction on night time flights in what she describes as a David V Goliath style battle after a meeting between residents and airport chiefs proved all but fruitless.
In September An Bord Pleanála ruled that night-time flights to and from Dublin Airport be dramatically cut from their current levels in a long-awaited decision regarding the airport’s newest north runway.
A draft proposal by the State planning body aims to lift the restrictions on night flights at Dublin and extend the airport’s normal operating hours by two hours.
This would allow flights to depart and land on Dublin Airport’s North Runway from 11pm to 12am midnight and between 6am and 7am; adding two hours to operations.
Under the proposal the cap on the number of flights allowed between 11pm and 7am will be removed and replaced with an annual night time noise quota between 11:30pm and 6am.
Currently, only 65 night aircraft “movements” are allowed at Dublin Airport between 11pm and 7am.”
Deputy Toole says the DAA are “dragging their heels” as they await ABP's decision with no solutions offered to affected residents in the meantime. However they did propose the deployment of additional noise monitors which come with their own challenges as she explains: “They are going to deploy more noise monitors to include the Wotton area of Ashbourne. However, they are not independent. They are being positioned by the DAA and if it exceeds a certain level then the DAA link it to a departure flight but it doesn't screen out background noises.
“The noise monitor is Ratoath is beside the sports campus so you could have bin lorries or delivery trucks going up and down and it is quite a crude way of measuring. It should be independent but noise from aircraft does not come under the remit of the Environmental Protection Agency.”
Earlier this year, a collective of engineers and pilots from the Ashbourne/south Meath area claimed to have the have a solution to the major problems with aircraft noise.
The North Runway Technical Group said that deviating from the missed approach track for planes landing on the south runway, would mean departing aircraft would not need to fly low over south Meath outside the permitted noise zone, which breaches the Environmental Impact Statement which formed part of the new north runway's planning permission.
Since the opening of the north runway at Dublin Airport in 2022 there has been huge anger in north Dublin and south Meath at the noise levels of aircraft over homes not inside the permitted noise boundary.
“In June the DAA attended an Oireachtas Transport Committee meeting and they informed them that there would be a review of procedures,” said the new Meath East TD.
“We hoped that we would get an update on that last week but now they say they are waiting on the ABP decision. I asked the question why a plan B wasn't worked on in the time from June to December and they said they didn't want to waste money on it but my counter argument was that if this goes to the European Court is it going to cost the tax payer a lot more money.
“The main shareholder of the DAA is the government of Ireland which is the Irish people. Surely if the tax payers in one area are affected by a negative experience, that is in conflict with mission statement of the board. “There is an opportunity for a win win situation which is changing the departure route that would allow increased capacity and also reduce the impact on residents.”
A final decision is set to be handed down by ABP regarding the night-time flight limit. The deadline for submissions was 23rd December.