Council Briefs: Dublin Airport local area plan, tenant-in-situ scheme changes, and St Patrick’s Day Parade routes

Dublin Airport local area plan extended

Fingal’s councillors approved a five-year extension of its local area plan for Dublin Airport during their March monthly meeting on Monday evening.

The plan, which sets out the policies and objectives for managing development and the use of land at the airport, was originally published in January 2020.

Local area plans last for six years, and the existing airport one was due to time out on 1 January 2026.

While the council was working on delivering on the plans objectives, it hasn’t implemented them all yet, the council’s chief executive, AnnMarie Farrelly, said in a report to councillors, recommending extending the plan.

Green Party Councillor David Healy said the worry is that the local area plan has noise zones that were put into it “on good faith” and based on the Dublin Airport Authority’s planning application for the North Runway.

But it’s now evident that those noise zones are incorrect, Healy said. “Because the flight paths in the North Runway planning applications are not being used.”

The noise is affecting local communities differently than what was expected, he said, so what needed to be addressed was how the noise zones could be amended if this plan was extended.

The noise zones were reviewed as part of the last local area plan, but they aren’t a part of that plan, said Matthew McAleese, director of planning and strategic infrastructure. “The noise zones are actually part of the [council] development plan [for 2023 to 2029].”

They came into the development plan as a variation, he said, and could be updated in a further variation.

The overwhelming view in the chamber was that a local area plan (LAP) in need of correction was better than none at all.

It wasn’t a perfect plan, said Labour Councillor Brian McDonagh, the Mayor. “There are things about it I would like to see changed, particularly in relation to [World Health Organisation] noise protections.”

The council extends these plans all the time, particularly large ones, and the removal of this one would be a mistake, said Fine Gael Councillor Kieran Dennison.

Fingal’s planning department was already under severe pressure as it is, Dennison said. “If they have to sit down now and work on another LAP for the airport, then I fear there would be consequences for our other LAPs.”

There is a backlog on local area plans right now, said Fianna Fáil Councillor Darragh Butler, and the council needs something in place to hold the airport operator DAA accountable.

While the other elected representatives expressed their views seated, independent Councillor Cathal Boland stood, delivering an impassioned speech.

He had his doubts when the local area plan was discussed five years ago, Boland said. “But to not extend would be the height of folly and would be flying in the face of common sense.”

Abandoning the plan would not be a sustainable position to take, he said, “because if we remove the LAP and all the benefits that it provides in the control of planning, we leave it open to fly-by-nights, the cowboys of the airways to run amok across the planning system. We cannot allow that to happen.”

“We are constantly in a position of attack by the DAA in an effort to sully and spoil the reputation of this council,” Boland said. “Why? Because we are holding them to account to deliver realistic, fair and just planning applications.”

Labour Councillor James Humphreys paused before he was about to give his own contribution. He probably couldn’t say it better, he said, and left it at that.

Before 2020, the last local area plan for the airport was in 2006, said McAleese director of planning and strategic infrastructure.

In the period between the two, there were significant changes in national aviation and planning policies, as well as regional planning policies.

But there haven’t been comparable changes since 2020, he said. So the 2020 local area plan “is as relevant today as it was back then”.

Arguably, even more now as the council was assessing two major planning applications from the DAA looking to increase the airport’s annual passenger capacity from 32 million to 36 and 40 million, McAleese said.

“The local area plan is the most powerful policy tool we have available to us,” he said.

DAA’s application to increase the cap to 36 million was submitted on 6 February 2025 after the previous one had been deemed invalid by Fingal planners.

This new application is currently being assessed, a council press release said on 11 March. “The DAA chose not to engage in pre-planning with the Planning Authority prior to the lodging of this application.”

The Aircraft Noise Competent Authority, the airport noise regulator, wrote to the council on 5 March, saying it is of the opinion “that the development contains a proposal requiring an assessment for the need for a noise-related action”.

At Monday’s meeting, councillors agreed the motion to extend the airport local area plan – which is now set to expire in January 2030.

Streamlining the St Patrick’s Day Parade

As the St Patrick’s weekend nears, councillors voiced concerns during the monthly meeting about a few changes to the upcoming parades in Fingal.

Seven parades are scheduled for Monday 17 March across the county: in Swords, Blanchardstown, Balbriggan, Malahide, Rush, Lusk, and Skerries, according to the council’s website.

And 100,000 people are expected to attend, said the council’s chief executive, AnnMarie Farrelly, in her monthly report.

Fine Gael Councillor Siobhan Shovlin observed a small change in the Blanchardstown route.

In previous years, the parade started at the Castleknock Road and concluded in the town centre at the Draíocht Plaza, but the council had shaved 2km off the 3km route.

This year, instead, it would wrap up on Main Street, according to the council’s parade announcement, posted on 26 February.

Were there financial issues here? asked Labour Councillor John Walsh. “Several groups have asked me about that, whether there has been a curtailment of parades across the county, or whether it’s only in Blanchardstown.”

Farrelly, the chief executive, said she understood that the issue with Blanchardstown is that a 3km route is too long for some children. “We’re looking at one kilometre this year to see how that works.”

Once it was over, the council would be happy to review this, she said.

The length has been a point of contention for a lot of the younger participants  because part of the walk, along the Snugborough Road, had very few spectators, said John Quinlivan, director of economic, enterprise, tourism and cultural development.

It did help that there wouldn’t be as many road closures, he said. “So there is a benefit to us financially in terms of the increased cost of running these events.”

They would also be making some changes to the viewing areas and stands, he said, “and some of the kinda VIP arrangements that would’ve been there in the past will not be there, or will have changed substantially.”

There were changes to all of the parades in order to make sure that they don’t go over budget, Farrelly said.

“There’s no reduction in budget for the St Patrick’s Day parades.” But they have been going over budget a lot in recent years, she said.

Battle over reports of tenant-in-situ scheme changes

As the meeting neared its third hour, the chamber descended into a state of some confusion when Sinn Féin councillors tabled a joint motion regarding changes to one of the government’s tenant-in-situ schemes.

Minister for Housing James Browne, of Fianna Fáil, needed to reverse recent changes being made to the scheme, read the joint motion by councillors Malachy Quinn, Breda Hanaphy, John Smyth and Angela Donnelly.

Under the tenant-in-situ scheme for social homes, councils have been able to buy a property if a tenant faces eviction and qualifies for social housing – although conditions and department support for that have fluctuated over the years.

In 2022, a move by the department to scrap the scheme was motivated by a desire to protect homes for private home buyers, a Dublin City Council official said at the time.

Monday night’s motion was drafted in response to council chief executive AnneMarie Farrelly’s monthly report, Quinn told the meeting.

That report said the council was aware that households in the county may have received a notice to quit from their landlord.

It went on to say that progress was being made in tenant-in-situ acquisitions, while taking account of “funding limits, circulars and guidance” issued by the Department of Housing.

On 7 March, Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson, TD Eoin Ó Broin, issued a statement warning that restrictions being introduced to the scheme by the minister would make people homeless.

The source of these restrictions was a briefing note circulated to local authorities, according to the Sinn Féin website, linking to the document.

According to the document, local authorities and approved housing bodies are to prioritise acquisitions for families with children, older persons, or people with a disability who are at serious risk of homelessness.

And rental properties must also have been in use for social housing purposes for at least two years, it says. Buying the property must be a last resort, it says.

The scheme works, Quinn said. “It has prevented, here in Fingal, 351 families and individuals from going into homelessness.”

It should be expanded with multi-annual funding, he said. “And targets for local authorities to ensure the maximum number of tenants at risk of eviction and homelessness can avail of it.”

That briefing note in question was issued to local authorities by his officials, and under the new rules, single people and couples without children were at risk of being excluded, he said.

He highlighted how rental properties now had to have been in use for social housing purposes for at least two years. And, “councils will not be allowed to reclaim refurbishment costs”, he said.

Also, he said the department will remove the council’s ability to acquire more than the targets set – a change which does not appear in the briefing note.

“Is that accurate? Is that true?” Fine Gael Councillor Tom O’Leary said over the sound of multiple councillors vying to get the attention of the mayor, Labour Councillor Brian McDonagh, who was chairing the meeting. “Has the chief executive received that instruction?”

Fine Gael Councillor Aoibhinn Tormey, off mic, interrupted McDonagh’s attempt to put this to Farrelly, suggesting that it may be hearsay or misinformation.

It was published in the Irish Times last Thursday, Donnelly said. “So if it’s not true, your party can ask them some serious questions.”

Fianna Fáil Councillor Darragh Butler corroborated some items within the document, saying he heard from the Minister for Housing that the government had approved an additional €265 million in capital funding to the Department of Housing for second-hand home acquisitions this year.

But he wanted council officials to confirm whether the minister had communicated this to the council.

Councillor O’Leary said he hadn’t heard of any circular landing. “That’s a newspaper article. I would like to know if it’s factually true.”

He would be concerned if restrictions were in place, he said, but he would need to know if it’s true. “Maybe we’re going to be told that the circular has been issued. But not according to the reply I have in writing today from the Minister for Housing.”

A press statement from Browne did not explicitly state there were tightened eligibility, but it implied this was the case, said John Walsh, a Labour party councillor. “Any change in the eligibility criteria would be very worrying, I think for all councillors.”

Paul Carroll, the interim director of housing and community development, said they await a circular on an actual financial allocation.

But the indication is that the priority is families with children, older people, people with disabilities and more vulnerable people, he said. “We’re not under any impression that that’s to exclude any particular group.”

The council will need to figure out how the prioritisation works once they have sight of the circular, he said.

Quinn, the Sinn Féin councillor, whipped out the briefing note to quote from it. But he was interrupted by Fianna Fáil Councillor Eoghan O’Brien, who argued that the motion should be ruled out of order, as Carroll had said on the record that he hasn’t received the circular.

McDonagh, the Mayor, said he would invite the minister to respond to any inaccuracies. “Just because the circular hasn’t been released, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”

But, as Quinn proceeded to quote from the document again, McDonagh interrupted him, saying, “if the circular hasn’t been issued, it doesn’t exist as a circular”.

The motion, ultimately, was agreed.