Government plans to scrap the contentious 32 million annual passenger cap at Dublin Airport inched forward with long-awaited Cabinet approval for draft laws to do away with the planning restriction.
The measures advanced by Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien come four months after the Cabinet first gave the go-ahead for the move and more than a year after it was promised in the programme for Government.
The general scheme for the legal package – setting out parameters of the draft legislation in broad terms – was not immediately available on Tuesday. O’Brien’s office said it will be published within days.
“This Government recognises the strategic importance of Dublin Airport as our primary international gateway and the vital role it plays in supporting economic growth, connectivity and jobs across the State,” the Minister said.
RM Block
“I will now engage with the Oireachtas joint committee on transport to progress pre-legislative scrutiny and advance the formal drafting of the Bill.”
State airports operator DAA has breached the cap in each of the last two years after strong passenger growth, triggering a Fingal County Council enforcement notice. However, enforcement is on hold pending litigation in the European courts.
Airlines that use Dublin Airport have long expressed frustration at the failure to tackle the cap.
They include American carriers who last month filed a formal complaint with the US department of transport, claiming the cap breaches Irish legal obligations.
The cap was imposed by planners in 2008 when they approved the airport’s second terminal almost two decades ago.
The Department of Transport said the general scheme empowers O’Brien “to make an order to amend or revoke” the cap.
“In advance of making an order, the Minister will engage with An Coimisiún Pleanála who will carry out any relevant assessments required under EU law. The Minister will take the outcome of those assessments into account when making an order.”
The legislation will take planning responsibility for DAA away from Fingal and put it under the control of An Coimisiún Pleanála.
Still, DAA’s current application to Fingal for new infrastructure to raise airport capacity to 40 million will proceed “in parallel” to the passage of the new law.
The Minister’s move met a dismissive response from Ryanair, which said progress was too slow and argued the new regime might not take force for another year.
“Micheál Martin’s programme for Government, published in January 2025, promised to abolish the cap ‘as soon as possible’. A two-year delay is not ‘as soon as possible’,” Ryanair said.
The airline said Martin should scrap the cap before he visits Washington for St Patrick’s Day next month. “Micheál Martin has a 20-seat majority, he has wasted 14 months doing nothing,” said Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary.
DAA welcomed the move, saying the “outdated” cap was “artificially restricting” airport growth. “Standing still as our population grows and other cities and countries compete to draw flights and destinations away from Dublin would be an own goal,” DAA said.
The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, which is concerned about the impact of climate measures on farmers, said lifting the cap was “obviously” against climate policy.
“Farmers accepted the Government’s assurances that this was going to be a national across-the-board drive to lower emissions but it’s now quite clear that this is not the reality”, said Denis Drennan, ICMSA president.
Opportunity Green, a climate pressure group, accused O’Brien of capitulation to powerful aviation interests and dismissed the move as a “disastrous” decision.
“It sends a clear signal that environmental limits are conditional and can be set aside when they become inconvenient,” said Sorcha Tunney of Opportunity Green.
