Court finally clears way for new Dublin Airport runway
IT’S been in legal limbo for ten years but the High Court has finally given the go-ahead for the construction of a €320million second runway at Dublin Airport – despite concerns of residents about added noise and pollution.
The 3,110metre North Runway project has been on hold since An Bord Pleanála gave it the go-ahead a decade ago.
Despite rejecting their legal actions, Judge Max Barrett said he respected the ‘fighting spirit’ of a residents’ group that took on the Dublin Airport Authority despite not being wealthy people.
Helena Merriman, who has lived for 40 years in St. Margarets’s, Co. Dublin – near Dublin Airport – led a group of 22 residents who took a High Court case to stop the construction of an ‘unauthorised’ second runway. The runway had been deemed ‘vital’ by the DAA to the transformation of the airport into an international hub.
But the St Margaret’s Concerned Residents Group ‘strenuously’ objected to the development on the basis that it would adversely affect them by adding to noise, traffic, dust and waste in their local area.
They live beside the site of the proposed new runway and felt their area was already noisy enough due to Dublin Airport as it stands.
Ms Merriman, the head of the residents’ group in Fingal, Co. Dublin, sought a court order to stop the DAA carrying out ‘any unauthorised development’ at Dublin Airport. The DAA was originally granted permission for the 3km-long runway in 2007, with a ten-year deadline to build it.
It was to be built 1.6km north of the existing main runway. But construction never went ahead due to the recession.
In March, the original ten-year deadline to build the runway was extended by a further five years to 2022.
However, works involving the demolition of a fire training centre and derelict farm buildings had got under way.
The local residents feared that the consequent noise, traffic, dust and waste arising from the works could be ‘as significant as the actual operation of the runway itself,’ the court heard last month.
Barrister John Rogers SC, for the residents, claimed that certain works had got under way – such as the removal of 327kg of waste containing asbestos – in the absence of a proper waste management plan. Crucially, the residents claimed that the DAA failed to submit a waste-management plan in time – as required by a condition of the planning permission previously granted for the runway.
They claimed this document was only submitted in recent months. But yesterday, Judge Max Barrett said in a 297-page judgment that ‘laws matter, rules matter; but mistakes happen’, and that he would use his discretion to find in favour of the DAA.
The judge also rejected a second action brought by the 22 residents – as individuals – against Fingal County Council and the State over the development. A third legal action brought by Friends of the Irish Environment against Fingal County Council and the State was also dismissed.
IT is good news that the High Court has ruled against the legal challenges from a small number of residents in relation to Dublin Airport’s plans for a second runway. As has been stated, time and again, by Dublin Airport Authority and other parties, the second runway is crucial to the airport’s development plans.
And giving the airport all the tools it requires to expand into a hub of genuine international proportions can only be a positive for the country.
It is ludicrous to imagine, for example, that an airport that hosted some 28million passengers last year, and is set to exceed the 29million mark for this year, can be expected to stand still in terms of its infrastructure.
Residents may have issues with noise pollution and it is indeed unfortunate, therefore, that they chose to set up home beside an international airport. But countless planning conditions, after all, have already been imposed on DAA when it comes to this second runway. It’s not as if they have been given free rein.
It is difficult, indeed, to argue with a recent study which illustrates that Dublin Airport currently provides 117,000 jobs for the economy, contributing €8.3billion worth when it comes to GDP. The airport’s vital contribution to our economy cannot be discounted. They must now get on and build this vital second runway.