{"id":307181,"date":"2026-02-20T01:55:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/307181\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T01:55:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:55:37","slug":"minister-for-climate-announces-end-to-airport-passenger-cap-is-nobody-joining-the-dots-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/307181\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister for Climate announces end to airport passenger cap. Is nobody joining the dots? \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Sir, \u2013 In Arthur Beesley\u2019s article, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2026\/02\/10\/dublin-airport-passenger-cap-set-to-be-scrapped\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2026\/02\/10\/dublin-airport-passenger-cap-set-to-be-scrapped\/\">Dublin Airport passenger cap set to be scrapped<\/a>\u201d (Business, February 10th), I was disappointed he didn\u2019t point out that Darragh O\u2019Brien is Minister for Climate as well as Minister for Transport.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Minister\u2019s announcement shows his disregard, and that of the Government\u2019s, for the first part of his mandate, specifically climate and environment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Air travel is a big contributor to the changes in our climate that are causing the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/floods\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/floods\">kinds of issues<\/a> that Enniscorthy and other places experienced in recent weeks. There is a complete disconnect between the two on the part of the government and a hypocritical stance shown by them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A climate emergency was declared by the previous government, yet successive governments have failed to act accordingly. \u2013 Yours, etc,<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">MARTIN ROCHFORD,<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Kells,<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Co Kilkenny.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Sir, \u2013 If the passenger cap at Dublin Airport, which was a 2007 condition attached to planning permission for Terminal 2, can be removed by ministerial order in the national interest, then why can\u2019t Ministers intervene with other projects?<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">For example, Ireland\u2019s onshore wind fleet is one of the most efficient in Europe, yet grid connection offers are being deferred to the late 2030s. It is not a resource problem; it is a permissions problem. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The same logic that is being applied to aviation must be applied to other critical infrastructure. We are an island nation with an abundant natural resource: wind. Failing to harness it fully will mean higher energy costs, missed climate targets and continued dependence on imported fuels. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">It may also mean our big IT companies will look elsewhere to set up centres because we can\u2019t provide the necessary energy. Where projects are demonstrably in the national interest, the State must be willing to prioritise delivery while still ensuring proper environmental safeguards.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The airport decision demonstrates that distinction can be made. The question now is whether it becomes a precedent or an exception. \u2013 Yours, etc, <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">PETER MALBASHA, <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Booterstown,<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Co Dublin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir, \u2013 In Arthur Beesley\u2019s article, \u201cDublin Airport passenger cap set to be scrapped\u201d (Business, February 10th), I&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[2885,15910,246,849,61,60,82,18335],"class_list":["post-307181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-climate-change","tag-darragh-o-brien","tag-environment","tag-floods","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-weather-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}