A third terminal at Dublin Airport would add to “huge noise problems” that already exist in the area, residents have claimed.

It comes after a company that owns land near the airport submitted concept plans to Fingal County Council for the future development of a third terminal.

It would be located between the existing two terminals and would include a cargo terminal, hotel, car parking, and office space.

On Lunchtime Live today, Niamh Maher, who lives close to the airport, said she is concerned by the plans.

“The local community needs to be factored in appropriately here,” she said.

“There is a huge noise problem already in North County Dublin already and we don’t want this worsening with additional applications or plans for new terminals.

“There have been noise issues since the north runway became operational and we don’t want the situation becoming more compounded and getting worse.”

Concept plans for a new third terminal at Dublin Airport. Image: D. A. Terminal 3 Ltd

Ms Maher said she is unhappy with the current level of community engagement between airport operator DAA and local residents.

“At the moment, there are planes in the sky flying over areas that were never meant to be flown over and people are just being told ‘this is how it is,’” she said.

“That is not appropriate engagement, it’s supposed to work both ways but it is very unbalanced engagement we are seeing here.”

Illegal flights

Fellow resident Breffni said he is concerned an additional terminal would lead to a rise in illegal flights.

“Local residents aren’t necessarily against increasing capacity, the bigger issue for us is the illegal flight paths and exceeding night flights,” he said.

“When local residents, of which there are over 30,000, make an observation against the DAA’s proposal to increase capacity, a lot of their objections are against the illegal flight paths and the exceeding of night time flights they are currently doing.

“If they got approved for extra capacity, those illegal flight paths and nighttime flights would become the norm.”

Shannon Airport

Shannon Airport local Derek said a new terminal at Dublin Airport would be the “completely wrong” move.

“Ireland is a small country and we have an airport here in Shannon that is underutilised, that has loads of capacity and we are being ignored,” he said.

“Expanding Dublin, with all the problems there like pollution, noise, and traffic, when you have another airport down the road is wrong.

“Why would we have 40 million passengers at Dublin and leave the rest of the country behind? I think it’s completely wrong.”

Dublin Airport currently has a passenger cap limit of 32 million a year.

DAA has applied for planning permission to increase that capacity to 40 million by 2030.

You can listen back here:

Main image: Main image: Concept plans for a third terminal at Dublin Airport. Image: D. A. Terminal 3 Ltd