Residents near Dublin Airport to meet Minister for Transport over planning and environmental worries
Minister for Transport Darragh O'Brien
to press their concerns around
planning and environmental issues
related to air traffic.
Mr O'Brien has already met several aviation organisations and business groups and is due to continue engagements over the coming weeks.
The Government is in favour of lifting Dublin's 32 million annual passenger cap and the Department of Transport is working on a new national aviation policy, which is expected by early 2026.
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Health cost of noise at Dublin Airport put at €800m
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The meeting on Wednesday with the
St Margaret's The Ward Residents' Group
is thought to be his first with community representatives.
READ MORE
'We're all about proper planning and sustainability,' said its spokesman Liam O'Gradaigh.
'We want to make sure that the Minister is also wearing his Department of Environment and Climate hat – that he fully understands the health impacts associated with Fingal residents and east Meath and that he listens to us and that he follows proper planning.'
New research suggests that noise levels at Dublin airport could have a health cost to residents living nearby. Video: Enda O'Dowd
Mr O'Brien is also Minister for the Environment and many north county Dublin residents angered by developments at the country's main airport live in his Dublin Fingal East constituency.
A spokesman for Mr O'Brien said the programme for government included a 'strong commitment' that relevant agencies would engage with communities affected by noise, flight movements and airport operations.
The group will raise health concerns based on a report it commissioned from PMCA Economic Consulting, which claimed local aircraft noise brought a human 'health cost' of almost €800 million and causes cardiovascular issues for thousands.
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Living near Dublin Airport: 'The noise, it's overwhelming ... it penetrates through the whole house'
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They will appeal to Mr O'Brien's responsibilities in environmental policy and highlight a planning submission from airport operator DAA where modelling shows that raising the passenger cap from 32 million to 36 million people annually would increase CO₂ emissions by more than 276,000 tonnes in 2026.
Other concerning issues on the group's agenda are its opposition to night-time flights, and the flight paths from the airport's second runway, which have caused considerable local disquiet since beginning three years ago.
It will raise a planning submission from the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) to An Bord Pleanála that said it had assessed and approved instrument flight procedures (IFPs) relating to flight paths, but that this 'should not be confused with any suggestion that these specific IFPs were required by the IAA, or that the IAA thinks that they are the optimal flightpaths, whether from a safety perspective or otherwise'.
About climate issues, the Minister's spokesman said the State strongly supports the policy objective of reducing aviation emissions. Measures would include aircraft technology and operations improvements, and the increased development of sustainable aviation fuels.
In the Dáil last week, Mr O'Brien raised the issue of additional capacity at regional airports and said there was a need for an updated 10-year national aviation policy. The
St Margaret's The Ward group
believes it should have more involvement in its formulation. An update of the regional airports programme from 2026 to 2030 is also due.
Mr O'Brien said that the current stay on Dublin's passenger cap, due to a related European Court of Justice case, will probably remain in place for most of 2026.
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Photograph: Joe O'Shaughnessy 'There may be people who are actively dying, they know they are dying. Well, we are all dying of course, that's what we have in common,' she says. Some are dealing with the loss of partners or parents. 'When listening to people's stories, you can see that they are living their lives and it is very instructive and it's a privilege,' she says. 'It's a privilege to talk about death and dying with people because you learn a lot about living from doing that.' Some are very fearful of death. 'There is one person who is terrified, she has a real fear of death. And I said to her, the fact that you are here is really impressive. A lot of people would run a mile from something called a Death Cafe and you are here talking to other people. That might not feel like progress, but it probably is.' A Death Cafe won't prevent or cure fear, but it can be cathartic for attendees, says Moran Stritch. 'If there are things inside me that are upsetting, or that I think I shouldn't be thinking, I can chat with other people and not feel embarrassed or ashamed or feel I'm being silly by bringing these things up,' she says. 'I'm sure there are personal benefits for me too in terms of my ability to think and feel about my own mortality, but also the deaths or potential deaths of people I'm close to.' Talking about death hasn't protected Folan from grief. 'When my father died, people asked, was it easier for you because of all the work you do on death? And I said no, you can't inoculate yourself against grief – and why would you want to? Grief is normal,' she says. 'But if we pretend that death is not going to happen, it can really disarm us.' Talking about death can instruct how we live. She refers to the work of 16th-century philosopher, Michel de Montaigne. 'He says something like, think about death for five minutes every day and then get on with your life, get on with living.' A Death Cafe meeting participant at the Victoria Hotel, Galway city. Photograph: Joe O'Shaughnessy A participant at the Galway Death Cafe meeting at the Victoria Hotel in Galway. Photograph: Joe O'Shaughnessy It's about understanding viscerally, as Underwood did, that time isn't forever, she says. Your life is finite, so make the most of it. 'It enables me to keep from straying too far from spending too much time doing the wrong things, from wasting time. It's really hard to get angry about waiting in a supermarket queue if you think 'I'm lucky to be alive'. Not everyone is,' she says. Patricia O'Sullivan hosts a monthly Death Cafe in the side room of the community hall in Ballydehob, Co Cork. 'There are no experts at a Death Cafe,' she says. 'We are all equal. It's simply people talking and being heard on the subject of death.' O'Sullivan arranges the tea and cake. She has lived in the area for 34 years, attending the Death Cafe events in the village for years before taking on the hosting duties herself. 'I just think it's an excellent idea. Any subject that is difficult to speak about for people, I just think, what a beautiful idea to gather and talk about it.' Ballydehob's Death Cafe attracts all ages, some regulars and some new joiners. Some will be well known to each other, but it's unlikely they have ever spoken about their feelings around death to each other before. [ The things I've learned about living from dying Opens in new window ] 'In the olden days people gathered a lot more easily, but in this day and age we have to make it happen. To be sure, it brings a closeness and a connection when you hear people's really authentic expression about something that is so important for all of us. It brings connection.' The Death Cafe enables you to hear people's experiences. It might not change how you feel about death, but listening can open new ways of thinking, she says. 'If you think about death, you also inevitably think more about life.' For her personally, the meetings have brought a sense of 'spaciousness'. 'Now, when I imagine the moment of death, rather than feeling fearful, it brings a feeling of spaciousness. Hopefully, I'll be more able to deal with it, to be in the moment. That's what I would hope for.' Jon Underwood died suddenly of an undiagnosed leukaemia in June 2017, aged just 44. His invitation to talk about death and dying over tea and cake has led to more than 20,000 Death Cafe meetings in cafes, homes, at festivals and in universities in 93 countries. His mother Sue Barsky Reid and sister Jools Barsky continue his Death Cafe work as he requested. Before the longest day of the year in June, the Ballydehob Death Cafe took place outside at the nearby graveyard of Kilcoe. The oldest legible headstone there dates back to the 1820s. Still standing inside this graveyard are the ruins of a church from the 1400s. The dead have been buried there for centuries. 'It did feel different,' O'Sullivan says. 'In the beauty of the sun, this graveyard was gorgeous.'
