Lorraine Clifford Lee (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It will not be any surprise to the Minister that I wish to address the issue of the development of the northern runway at Dublin Airport. I am one of the 50,000 residents whom the development will impact so it is an issue close to my own heart. He said he was encouraging the DAA to continue to engage with local communities. As he knows from several meetings that I and other public representatives have attended with him, the engagement has been nothing more than a box-ticking exercise and, in the future, engagement has to be meaningful. Residents are starved of information and learn about the development through the media. This has to change.

We do not oppose the development of the runway and accept that it is going ahead but the third and fifth conditions set down by An Bord Pleanála, which specifically refer to night-time flights, must be adhered to. We need a commitment from the Government that it will not ignore, or allow the DAA to ignore, those conditions. The impact of noise pollution on the communities around the airport cannot be underestimated. Health implications such as depression, heart disease and obesity have been linked with noise pollution and a lack of sleep or broken sleep. The people around the airport are experiencing these things at present.

The development of the northern runway will have a devastating impact on regional airports, as outlined by Senator Humphreys. The increase in air traffic at Dublin Airport in recent months and years is directly linked with a decrease in traffic in Cork and Shannon. Senator O'Mahony spoke of the commitment to regional development and I ask the Senator to speak to his colleague and friend, the Taoiseach, about it to ensure the Government stands firm with the DAA and does not allow the third and fifth conditions of the grant of planning permission for the northern runway to be overruled, thereby increasing the traffic exponentially at Dublin Airport to the detriment of the regional airports.

The infrastructure around the airport is very important and the M50 is at capacity. The country roads around the airport are not suitable to cope with the impact the new runway will have. Metro north needs to be looked at again and, while we have a commitment on a scaled-back version, we need to increase it considering that Fingal is the fastest-growing county in Ireland and on account of the traffic which will go through the airport as a result of the development of the northern runway.

A small group of families are being bought out by the DAA in the development of the runway. The Minister met them earlier this week, along with myself and other colleagues. They need a fair price as they are losing their farms and their way of life. Generations have grown up on the lands around the airport and they need meaningful engagement at this point. Their community is being destroyed and generations of farming families are going to see a massive change in their way of life so the Minister should ensure they are looked after adequately.