Limerick Chamber boss: Dublin Airport ‘a wrecking ball’ to balanced regional development

THE chief executive of the Limerick Chamber has warned that developing a third terminal at Dublin Airport will undermine the National Planing Framework.

Dee Ryan was speaking following comments from Transport Minister Shane Ross that an expansion of the capital’s airport may be necessary, and could be built by 2030.

Ms Ryan says Ireland’s largest airport is “becoming a wrecking ball” for balanced regional development.

“Airports are recognised as catalysts for growth. If a region’s airport is strong, the regional economy will be strong,” she said.

“A key factor in Dublin’s rapid economic growth is the growth of its airport. However, if one of the key goals of the Ireland 2040 is achieving greater economic balance across regions, then further expansion at Dublin Airport without a parallel investment in Cork and Shannon is unquestionably going to undermine this. Worse still, this is not alone going unchecked but today’s reports suggest it is about to be sponsored further by Minister of Transport Shane Ross.”

She said if plans to increase Dublin’s capacity to 50 million by 2050, it’s hard to see how Shannon, Cork, Knock and other airports will be able to compete.

“If there is a requirement for additional capacity, there’s plenty of it already in place at other airports so why not use that rather than spend over €1bn on lengthening queue congestion in Dublin? 

“The potential benefit of spreading this growth across other Irish airports would be enormous for their regions and would be far more positive for the country overall, and for people’s prospects for getting improved work-life-balance by getting out of the Dublin commuter,” she said.