The development of Dublin Airport, including a new runway, will lead to the creation of thousands of new jobs, it was claimed today.
Dublin Airport Director Mr Robert Hilliard said a 30 per cent increase in Dublin Airport-related jobs would be realised if development plans went ahead.
Dublin Airport Director Mr Robert Hilliard
He was speaking as a €130 million plan to build the new runway was unveiled. The official planning application is to be lodged with Fingal County Council before the end of this year, but it is expected to take until 2010 to commission the runway. The authority said it had built in the possibility of challenges from objectors.
Mr Hilliard said: "We will need to have a new runway in place in the next five or six years by when passenger numbers will have risen to well over 20 million per annum."
"Otherwise demand for runway space will exceed capacity, aircraft will not be able to land and take off on time, and the overall expansion of the airport will be curtailed," he said.
"Any constraint on the growth of the airport will also affect the wider, local, regional and national economies."
Plans to build the runway are to be lodged before the end of the year, Mr Hilliard added. He said the development was largely dependent on getting extra revenue in increased landing fees, a move that would have to be sanctioned by the airports regulator.
"The development of the airport at large is pretty much contingent on getting money from Bill Prasifka," Mr Hilliard said, referring to the Commission for Aviation Regulation which must approve any increase in the authority's charges.
Mr Hilliard also said he was "concerned" about the need for more terminal capacity at Dublin Airport within a very short time and that a decision on who was going to build the proposed new terminal needed to be made by the Government.
He did not believe, he said, Dublin needed another commercial airport and that it would be "virtually inconceivable" to build a new airport "from scratch" in Ireland.
It is estimated that the 120 companies based at Dublin Airport support some 12,000 jobs on the 3,000-acre site and a total of 39,000 nationally. Dublin Airport-related economic activity accounts for 1.3 per cent of GNP per annum, according to the authority.
Mr Hilliard said the proposed new runway would facilitate additional aircraft and passenger traffic and support "a significant increase in overall employment and annual income".
"This is a project of major local and national importance," he said.
The overall plan for the expansion of the airport, including a new runway, has been included in the county development plan for over 30 years and the land on which the runway will be built is already owned by the airport authority.
However, there has been significant local opposition to the runway proposal, notably from residents in nearby Portmarnock, who have complained in the past about an increase in aircraft noise from planes using the airport.
An opposition group called Uproar, based in Portmarnock, claims an additional runway with its associated traffic is unnecessary and will substantially increase noise pollution in the south Fingal area, particularly around Swords and Baldoyle.
It also claims the aircraft noise will interfere with local schools, increase air pollution and damage existing wildlife habitats. Uproar has called for a cap on the growth of Dublin Airport.
Mr Hilliard said today the airport authority is "acutely aware" of the impact development will have on the local area and that it was the company's social responsibility not only to provide transport in and out of the area but also to balance that in terms of what it does to local communities.
"We are very mindful of our responsibility to local communities on air quality, water quality and so on," he said.
It is projected that some 17.1 million passengers will use Dublin Airport this year, an increase of 1.2 million on 2003.
The Environmental Impact Assessment information is on display at the Great Southern Hotel at Dublin Airport until Friday.