By Irishexaminer.com,Louise Burne And Tadgh McNally
Copyright irishexaminer
Airport operator DAA has repeatedly called for the 32m passenger annual cap to be lifted, arguing that growing Dublin Airport to 40m passengers a year is “in line with national aviation policy”.
The cap was put in place as part of the planning permission granted when Terminal 2 was being constructed. At the time, there were concerns cited about the level of traffic that constructing the new terminal would create on the roads in North Dublin.
The memo being brought by Mr O’Brien will propose putting legislation in place that will “give the minister for transport the power to remove or amend the limit on annual passenger numbers at Dublin Airport”.
He will seek Cabinet approval to draft the legislation, with another memo to be brought to Government on this at a later date. The bill will be debated in both houses of the Oireachtas once it is drafted.
It is understood that Tuesday’s memo will detail the “importance of addressing the passenger cap at Dublin Airport and the challenges faced in securing timely permission for planning applications”.
Cabinet will also discuss the commitment to develop a long-term strategy for Irish airports across Ireland.
Legacy unit
Meanwhile, Tánaiste Simon Harris will update Cabinet on the recent agreement with Britain on dealing with the legacy of Northern Ireland’s Troubles.
This includes a government commitment to provide €25m to support victims and families over the next three years, as well as a new dedicated legacy unit in An Garda Síochána by the end of the year.
Mr Harris will say that while the changes are “significant, welcome, and represent a step-change”, he will also warn that “it will be important to see these translated faithfully into legislation by the UK government”.
The Irish Government may also be required to introduce legislation to deliver on some of its commitments made under the deal.
The Tánaiste will also update colleagues on plans to publish a new Ireland-Scotland Bilateral Cooperation Framework 2030 later this year.
Finance minister Paschal Donohoe will bring a memo on the upcoming white paper, which will provide an estimate of receipts and expenditure for 2026. This will be published on Friday ahead of next Tuesday’s budget.
Elsewhere, education minister Helen McEntee will brief her Cabinet colleagues on the Education Plan 2025 mid-year review.
Sources suggested that she will tell her ministers that “strong progress has been made across a range of actions and sub-actions” across the first and second quarter of this year.
Some 67% of the actions for delivery in the first half of the year were delivered, and it is expected that the remaining actions will be fully delivered by the end of the third quarter of this year.
