The impending removal of Dublin Airport’s Passenger cap “ignores the reality of the worsening climate crisis”, a climate group has said.

Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien has announced that the abolition of the controversial 32 million people passenger cap at Dublin Airport will go to Cabinet on Tuesday.

Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien has announced that the abolition of the passenger cap at Dublin Airport will go to Cabinet on Tuesday. 

The passenger cap currently limits the number of passengers passing through Dublin Airport to 32 million. The ban would ban the creation of any future caps and should be passed by the end of the year. 

On Newstalk Breakfast,  Children's Rights Over Flights spokesperson Louise O’Leary said the state had a ‘duty to rapidly cut emissions to protect the rights and welfare of children’. 

“This bill is in direct opposition to what we need to do to protect our kids and grandkids as it will massively increase fossil fuel pollution”, she said. 

“This is a climate issue, this is a child rights issue, this is a public health issue. Those things have just been repeatedly ignored in conversation and in coverage of the passenger cap.”

Ms O’Leary continued that “Ireland has one of the higher rates of flying in Europe” and raised the concern that failing to reduce emissions is in direct violation of the Paris Agreement. 

“We have a responsibility to protect children from harm”, Ms O’Leary said. 

“Every sector has to play a part and aviation doesn’t. The notion that there aren’t enough flights to leave the island is ludicrous and needs to be challenged. 

“One of the most frightening things about this bill is that the emissions impacts and the climate harms have not been evaluated of what impact it would have if the bill is removed outright.”

Children at Dublin Airport. Picture by: Alamy.com

Ms O’Leary explained it was “unfair” to selectively choose which sectors should abide by climate goals and which should be exempt from it. 

“It’s really worrying for adults to suggest we pick and choose sectors when we know what’s ahead for our kids is serious harm. 

“This is an increasingly grave crisis and we have to do everything we can.”

The Children's Rights Over Flights spokesperson also explained the potential strain placed onto domestic tourism following the end of the passenger cap. 

“There’s been no evaluation of how much more money is going to leave the economy because more tourists are going to be flying out of Ireland. Irish tourists are going to be flying away”, she said. 

Main Image: Children watch aircraft from a terminal one window. Picture by: Alamy.com