On Thursday 24 October the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) and aviation union leaders met with Minister James Lawless TD and senior civil servants in the Department of Transport to discuss the potential risk of job losses due to the Dublin airport passenger cap.

The Dublin airport cap was introduced in the mid-2000s when Dublin airport applied for planning permission to build Terminal 2. Fingal County Council approved the build on the condition that there would be a 32 million passenger cap on the number of passengers who can pass through the airport per year.

This decision was mainly based on the limitations of the road infrastructure to and from the airport as the M50 had not been developed and at the time only 5% of the public travelled to the airport on public transport. Fingal County Council feared that the expansion would cause gridlock for local residents. The cap has remained at 32 million per year since 2007.

Fórsa national secretary, Katie Morgan, and IALPA principal officer Captain Daniel Langan formed part of the delegation.

Daniel Langan raised concerns directly with the Minister and senior officials regarding the potential loss of "highly skilled jobs which will transfer to other major airport hubs in Europe”, while emphasising that, “jobs losses in the wider tourism sector are also at risk, with the cap effectively limiting the return of state investment in the construction of terminal 2 and the northern runway, which would reduce growth and employment”. IALPA sought that the government urgently moves airport planning, as national infrastructure from a local to national level.

Speaking about the meeting Katie Morgan said: “We welcomed the opportunity to highlight the real risk of job losses if the cap is not addressed. It was positive to hear that the Minister recognises Dublin airport as strategic infrastructure and wants to convene a stakeholder engagement to try and resolve this urgently. 

We also discussed the importance of developing our regional airports, something that we wish to see in addition to addressing the cap. This can’t be an either/or approach, especially when job losses are being threatened.”

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