Keep the Dublin Airport Passenger Cap - Help protect children from harm

We know what needs to be done to protect children from the horrific harms of climate breakdown - urgent cuts wherever possible to the pollution causing the climate crisis. This must include aviation, which is using record levels of fossil fuel and holding back climate action, even as the odds for children's futures worsen.

Despite airlines polluting at higher levels and climate threats for children rapidly worsening, an aggressive campaign by vested interests led to a Government commitment to lift the Dublin Airport Passenger 'cap' - which already allows for a colossal 32 MILLION passengers each year. In response to pressure from airlines and threats from the US Government, our Government rammed through a law (the Dublin Airport Passenger Capacity Act 2026) which allows the Minister for Transport to amend or entirely remove the passenger cap.

Shockingly, the new law allows the Minister for Transport to ignore their own and the State’s climate obligations under our Climate Act at the very time that deadly heat, drought and wildfires are causing thousands of deaths, destroying people’s homes, communities and farmers’ crops, and causing water shortages across Europe.

Since 1990, while Ireland’s population has grown 44%, aviation emissions have risen 500%. Irish aviation pollution is now causing more climate harm than all the cars on our roads. And BILLIONS more euro is taken out of the economy with Irish people flying abroad than is coming in. ALL of this is being ignored in the Government’s attempts to scrap the cap.

Stand up for kids, and sign our petition to Government calling for the passenger cap at Dublin Airport to remain in place.

We still have time though to push for the Government to do the right thing for kids and their future, and keep the cap. That includes building support for this petition. Every voice counts.

Children’s futures are being irreversibly harmed due to a failure to cut harmful global warming pollution - they face malnutrition, increased danger from more extreme weather events, and economic harm. Every fraction of a degree of global warming matters. Increasing flights via a lifting of the cap, would mean massive increases in fossil fuel use and pollution. The Dublin Airport Authority’s planning documents indicate that raising the passenger cap to 40 million passengers annually would increase emissions by 22 per cent by 2031. However, Darragh O’Brien, who is Minister for both Climate and Transport, has expressed hope that annual numbers reach 60 million, meaning the emissions would be even higher.

Keeping the cap means responsibly protecting against even greater levels of fossil fuel pollution. Unprecedented and apparently unlawful levels of flight traffic at Dublin Airport are already reportedly causing harm. Schools and communities under flight paths have reported negative impacts on the education, sleep, well-being and home lives of children due to intolerable levels of noise pollution. All children have a fundamental right to rest, play and learn. Keeping the cap means putting communities, families and children before harmful industry expansion and pollution.   

We urgently need every sector to do its part to help protect kids from the harms ahead.  Keeping the cap means a step towards Irish aviation responsibly contributing to the essential climate action all children are counting on.