Dublin Airport should get on with building a third terminal, Newstalk Breakfast presenters Shane Coleman and Ciara Kelly have said. 

Last year, the airport’s second runway was completed and President of the Irish Airline Pilots Association has said a new terminal is needed to manage the extra capacity. 

“I think you often go through Dublin Airport now - particularly at peak times in the summer - and it’s wedged,” Ciara said. 

“It isn’t just the queues at security - which they seem to have actually managed a little bit better - it’s all the other queues; the queues for a cup of coffee, it’s toilets that aren’t in great nick. 

“You can sort of see the airport bursting at the seams.” 

Ciara said she was aware her opinion would not be popular in North County Dublin but the airport was a vital piece of national infrastructure. 

“The airport needs to have whatever capacity the airport needs and if that is a third terminal  or - dare I say it - a third runway, so be it,” she said. 

“I understand that there are difficulties for people who live near the airport but we are an island nation and Dublin Airport is vitally important.” 

Aerial view of Dublin Airport's North Runway. Picture by: DAA

Shane agrees a third terminal should be built and said it should operate independently of the Dublin Airport Authority. 

“I also think it’s really important that it is a private terminal and it is not a DAA terminal,” she said. 

“I think Dublin Airport have got a little bit complacent, if I’m being totally critical of them.

"I think it would be no harm to have an operator there in terms of the price offering for airlines but also in terms of the service offering for customers.”

He also said he thought the debate had gone on far too long and shovels should be put in the ground as soon as possible. 

“I’ve been in journalism for 30 years practically and we’ve been talking about a private terminal at Dublin Airport in all that time,” he said. 

“I remember writing stories about it and interviewing the Transport Minister Mary O’Rourke about the possibility of a second private terminal. 

“There is a second terminal now - it’s not private - but I think we should have a private one. 

"We’ve been talking about it for too long. Bring it on.”  

Main image: Shane Coleman in the Newstalk studio. Image: Newstalk.