Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Boylan for raising this matter, which I am taking ,on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Jack Chambers.

The use of private jets during the climate emergency for leisure and luxury is clearly an obscenity. However, such use is mixed up in the general figures for aviation, as the Senator understands, in the context of everything that is not a commercial flight. It includes such things as Defence Forces flights, medical flights and cargo flights.The question was what impact private jets are having on the passenger cap. The answer to that is simply almost none because very few passengers are carried by non-commercial airlines, as opposed to in commercial flights. Some 99.95% of passengers going through Dublin Airport travel on commercial airlines. Approximately 32 million passengers is the cap in Dublin Airport at the moment and 16,000 passengers go through anything that is not a commercial flight. If we were to completely ban all cargo, all Defence Forces flights, all medical flights and all private jets, we would save 0.05 % on the number of passengers. Of course, the passenger cap is a strange thing. It is imposed by a planning condition, but we should really be looking at an emissions cap. It does not matter how many passengers are carried. What is more important is how many flights take off, or better than that, the emissions of the airport.

Dublin Airport serves as a major transport hub for millions of business and leisure travellers. It facilitates global connectivity and the movement of goods on and off our island. Senators will be aware that a cap of 32 million passengers per annum is currently in place at Dublin Airport. The passenger cap is a condition attached to the planning permission granted for Terminal 2. Dublin Airport is currently working to address the cap through the submission of an infrastructure application to the planning authority. This forms part of Dublin Airport Authority, DAA’s, capital investment programme and seeks to raise the 32 million passenger cap to 40 million passengers. The application, which was submitted to the planning authority in December, also seeks to increase capacity.

Increasing the capacity of Dublin Airport is in line with national aviation policy which recognises the strategic importance of Dublin Airport in meeting national social and economic policy goals and includes a specific objective of developing Dublin Airport as a hub with the necessary capacity to connect key existing and emerging global markets. While the importance of the airport to Ireland’s island economy is recognised, it is important to the Government to ensure the sustainable development of Dublin Airport, to balance the objectives of the national aviation policy, the needs of business and tourism interests and the legitimate rights of local residents.

As the Senator will be aware, DAA has the statutory responsibility for the operation, management and development of Dublin Airport including the compliance with any planning conditions attached to planning permissions granted for developments at the airport. It is DAA’s responsibility to engage with the relevant planning authorities on all planning matters including for the lifting of the cap and the development of new infrastructure required to support increased connectivity. I advise Senators that the Aircraft Noise (Dublin Airport) Regulation Act 2019 provides a wholly independent aircraft noise regulation process in accordance with EU law and established the Aircraft Noise Competent Authority, ANCA, as the independent noise regulator. The Act also provides that all future development at Dublin Airport is subject to assessment and mitigation in respect of the impact of associated aircraft movements on the noise environment around Dublin Airport. This provides a safeguard against any award of planning permission until such time as the proposal has been fully assessed in relation to aviation noise impacts. It is likely that this process will take some time to conclude.

While aviation accounts for approximately 3% of global carbon emissions, DAA has a plan to decarbonise the airport. DAA announced at the launch of its environmental sustainability initiatives last week that it is fully focused on reducing carbon emissions generated by its operations - including scope 1 and 2 emissions - by 51% by 2030 and achieving net zero emissions by 2050, at the latest. Regarding emissions from aircraft operations, a number of measures have been adopted at EU level to seek to achieve this target. On general aviation, I am advised that there were 7,842 general aviation movements including private jets at Dublin Airport in 2023. The number of movements was more than 10% less than in 2022 when there were 8,787 movements. In terms of a percentage of passenger numbers, general aviation constituted only 0.052% of the passengers at Dublin Airport last year.