Mr. Michael O'Leary:

There is a noise profile. It is above my technical competence. I can forward details. There is a noise profile for our older aircraft - the older 737s. It is done by some kind of decibel. If the Deputy has flown on our older aircraft and one of the current ones, the Gamechangers, they are materially quieter. Even at the window you will notice how much quieter they are. There is a noise envelope. Our existing aircraft are approximately 50% less noisy by decibel level compared to our older aircraft. I do not know how that decibel level is measured. The new 737 MAX 10 we hope to get in 2027 will reduce that again by another 30%. There is an 80% reduction in noise between our older aircraft and the newer aircraft we will get in 2027. I will come back on the other point. I have no issue with Fingal County Council. It has to do what it has to do. My issue is with the reason the Minister for Transport is not taking some alternative action.

We have gone around and measured on a decibel level. There are three critical areas. One thing is not well understood. When we only had one runway, all of the traffic was taking off or landing over St. Margaret's. There was one flight path. We now have two runways so there are two flightpaths. I appreciate that brings other houses in Ashbourne and Ballyboughal under a noise path. However, you have reduced the number of take-offs over St. Margaret's by 50% simply by using two runways. We have gone around and put up noise measuring equipment at St. Margaret's, Ballyboughal and Ashbourne. Without any aircraft overhead the average noise levels are 48 dB in St. Margarets, 45 dB in Ballyboughal and 39 dB in Ashbourne. When an aircraft is overhead, St. Margaret's goes from 48 dB to 53 dB, Ballyboughal goes from 45 dB to 53 dB and Ashbourne goes from 39 dB to 48 dB. That video is on the Ryanair website. I will put that in some context. If you are on O'Connell Bridge in Dublin, that is 70 dB. If you are on Sydney Parade Avenue when a DART passes by, that is 72 dB. Nobody wants to belittle that there is a noise issue at Dublin Airport, but the noise is dramatically reducing. RTÉ is much beloved of going out to interview some teary-eyed mother whose children cannot sleep late at night, but it never puts up noise measuring equipment that shows it is about 48 dB and perfectly quiet out there.