Taoiseach Leo Varadkar defended Fingal County Council’s decision to issue an enforcement order at Dublin Airport requiring them to reduce the number of night flights, reports Breaking News.
Mr Varadkar said he did not believe there would be any disruption to flights and expressed confidence that a solution would be found.
The council asked the airport to reduce the number of flights between 11pm and 7am to 65 over six weeks.
The injunction was issued after the council ruled that the airport had breached planning conditions for late-night flights.
Ryanair called the enforcement order “stupid” and called for the council’s “sledgehammer measures” to be overthrown.
“The easiest way to comply with these planning restrictions would be to open the second runway between 6am and midnight. We have a ridiculous situation at the moment in Dublin Airport where the second runway is closed in the early morning, all the aircrafts are taking off the one runway, and what this enforcement notice by Fingal County Council would do is reduce the overall number of flights at Dublin Airport, below the number we had when there was only one runway,” he told RTÉ Radio, reports Breaking News.
Speaking to reporters in Dunleer, Co Louth, Mr Varadkar said: “Fingal County Council has to enforce the law. And if planning conditions have been breached, well, then Fingal County Council has no choice but to enforce the law, so I don’t criticise the council for doing its job. But I think there’s a number of further steps that are yet to play out in this regard. There is an appeal before An Bord Pleanála (planning appeals body) at the moment and I think there’s also likely to be a court case,” reports Breaking News.
“So I don’t anticipate that there will be disruption to people’s flights. If people are worried about their flights in the next few weeks, whether it’s for holidays, or visiting relatives or businesses, I don’t think they need to be because this will play out, both in An Bord Pleanala and in the courts. But ultimately, Fingal County Council has to enforce the existing planning permission and they are right to do so,” he added, reports Breaking News.
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