Jet-set Greens need their wings clipped

THIS is the time of year when your mind drifts to summer holidays and, last week, a thought popped into my head. I often used to take the car to France, and the benefits were immense. You have to the freedom to go wherever you want, booking accommodation along the way and, perhaps even more importantly, you can stuff the jalopy with wine and other goodies when you’re coming home.

So I hopped onto the internet, and my blood froze. Return travel in July between Rosslare and Cherbourg for me and the car, with a cabin each way, costs a quite staggering €1,510, and I vowed to venture out next day to buy some smelling salts after I finally came around.

Reality

It underlines a simple but compelling reality. Ferry travel might make sense for three or four family members or friends to bring down the average cost, but when you’re a mostly solo traveller, as I am, flying is the cheapest and most efficient way to make the best of your holiday leave.

Maybe that’s why, despite the general feeling in 2021 that it might take up to five years for Dublin Airport to see passenger numbers return to the pre-pandemic record of almost 32 million in a year, that total was actually surpassed last year (and, between departing and returning, 24 of the number was me).

The attraction is obvious, because you can be anywhere in the Mediterranean, or in any of Europe’s superstar capital cities or hidden gems, in just a few short hours, or in New York two hours after you leave, thanks to the time difference.

Indeed, such is the demand for flights that Dublin Airport is seeking to extend the cap on passenger numbers imposed by Fingal County Council, also 32 million a year, to 40 million.

There have been many objections from those living close to the Collinstown campus, mostly relating to aircraft noise, and concerns are understandable.

At the turn of the century, 13.85 million passengers passed through, considerably less than half the number that did so last year. The opening of the second runway has also brought aircraft closer to homes previously shielded from the worst of the noise, despite soundproofing works carried out on individual houses.

Among those criticising the plan (and there have been supportive submissions, too) are three senior Green Party figures, Junior Minister Joe O’Brien, party spokesman on climate and transport Brian Leddin TD, and MEP for Dublin Ciarán Cuffe.

Their reticence flies in the face of Government policy, fully aware of the key role played by Dublin Airport in the economic health of the country, contributing around €9.6billion, and supporting 116,000 jobs.

Now, unlike many, I have no issue with Government ministers flying all over the world on St Patrick’s Day. It is a unique calling card that gets us to the top table in pretty much any country with which we wish to engage and, as a driver of soft power that often results in inward investment and even sways diplomatic thinking, it should be celebrated, not condemned.

What I do have an issue with, though, is hypocrisy. Green Party leader Eamon Ryan is off to Brazil, not long after he and a clutch of advisers were in Dubai for the COP28 UN Climate Change Conference. His deputy Catherine Martin is heading to Tennessee and Texas in the United States, and Roderic O’Gorman is eastbound to Tokyo and Osaka in Japan. I suspect they will not be turning right at the aircraft door.

Optics

If any of them wished to truly lead on this issue, they quite easily could have said no to the missions. Their argument, one supposes, is that someone else would go anyway, but that does little, indeed nothing, for the optics of the situation. This is especially true when this actually will be the last St Patrick’s Day before a general election, and a rare opportunity in which tangible action and visible leadership on reducing airmiles presented itself.

There are, of course, many arguments in play. The Greens could call for a better spread of regional services, to Shannon, Cork, Knock, Donegal, Kerry and Waterford, though convincing carriers of the commercial viability of such routes might involve some hard graft.

For its own part, the Dublin Airport Authority will, next Tuesday, outline its own plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Modern aircraft are quieter on take-off and landing than previous generations and, while progress is slow, it is clear that viable biofuels will increasingly become part of the aviation mix.

In short, the Green objections come just at the time the industry itself is entering a transformation phase. The ball is now in Fingal County Council’s court, but the decision to stick with the cap on passenger numbers in Dublin Airport, or to grant the requested 15-year planning permission for new infrastructure and increased passenger numbers, cannot be taken lightly.

If any of Eamon Ryan’s party colleagues care to ask what an airport processing over 40 million passengers a year actually looks like, they surely can ask him when he gets home from Sao Paulo – last year, it handled 41,307,915.