DAA to create eight temporary departure gates at airport

The Dublin Airport Authority is to spend €5 million developing prefabricated check-in facilities for passengers, in a bid to counter overcrowding and delays at the airport. As many as eight new gates are to be created, but none are expected to be operational until the end of next year.

The authority - which will see passenger numbers rise to 18 million this year - is about to embark on a new €200 million terminal to handle up to 15 million passengers annually, but this will not be in use until 2009 at the earliest.

The authority is also planning a new check-in zone in space initially ear-marked for a train station in the basement of the current terminal. The 25 new check-in desks in the basement will be separated from the current main departures floor by the arrivals hall.

The new, temporary departure gates are to be located in the north of the airport, in the space where it is proposed to build a new pier (Pier D).

However, the moves have not been welcomed by Green Party leader Trevor Sargent who said it had the potential to conflict with Government plans to connect the airport to the rail network. Mr Sargent said the use of space ear-marked for the airport's rail link was a worrying development, and he called for the Government to clarify the position. The Government must clearly "state its position with regard to the proposed direct railway and metro link to Dublin airport. It has been reported that the basement area at Dublin airport which had previously been earmarked for the proposed metro station is now to be requisitioned as a much needed check-in area," he said.

"Questions need to be asked of this Government on whether the abandonment of the metro station is effectively a nail in the coffin for the metro link to Dublin airport."

The Labour spokeswoman on Transport, Róisín Shortall, also expressed concern about the airport and public transport yesterday, pointing out that Fingal County Council expects all local roads to be facing gridlock in the near future. "We saw television footage during the week from 2002 when the then minister Séamus Brennan was assuring the people of Dublin that a metro service to the airport would be up and running in 2007. We are now just 15 months away from 2007 and we have not even got a decision on the type of service or the route to be taken."

A spokeswoman for the airport authority confirmed the erection of prefabricated facilities and the use of the basement "as a temporary measure".