In June 2024 daa’s chief executive told an Oireachtas committee he hoped to have a view on a better flight path by the end of the year. End of the year, then? “Yes.” A minute later, his managing director: “We do not have a definitive timeframe”.
The end of the year came and went.
Meanwhile, the noise regulator wanted data. In March 2024 Fingal, acting as the noise regulator, directed daa to hand over 47 items of noise data. A direction, not an invitation to negotiate. The law says daa “shall comply … as soon as is practicable”.
Eight months later, daa wrote back with a menu. About half by early 2025, the rest “following receipt of the final NRRA decision”. Or all of it now. Or all of it, worked out with and without. “We are happy to be led by you as to your preference.”
The NRRA is the North Runway Relevant Action, daa’s application to change the night-time rules. And in the paragraph before, daa said the application the data was for was “not dependent on the NRRA”.
So the data didn’t depend on the Relevant Action. It could just wait for it. It arrived in November 2025, twenty months after it was asked for.
Remember the Relevant Action. It comes back.
In September 2025 the Minister wrote to daa: how’s that flight-path review going? daa’s chief executive replied. With the processes “that will set the baseline” still under way, “it would be inappropriate to embark on a flightpath review at this time”. And anyway, a review “may not be significantly different from the current airspace design”.
In March 2026 the managing director put it plainly. The review hadn’t moved “because we need a baseline of the North Runway relevant action”.
There it is. No review until daa’s own night-flights application is decided.
Then, in June 2026, the Minister stood up in the Dáil. Flight paths had been raised, he said, and that was valid. “I am committing here that we will carry out an independent assessment of flight paths.” Residents had seen flight paths that weren’t flown as approved. “That is not acceptable.” A retention application had gone in on that, he said. A week later, he committed again.
No conditions. No timing. We checked the full record of both days. “Appropriate time” isn’t in it. Neither is “relevant action”.
On 3 July a private secretary wrote to a member of the public. The assessment would happen “at the appropriate time”. Most likely “when a final decision is made regarding the North Runway Relevant Action”.
daa’s condition. In the Minister’s name.
Five days later the same paragraph turned up as an answer to a Dáil question, almost word for word, with a new bit at the front: he had committed “at the recent second stage debate” to an assessment “at the appropriate time”. He’d committed. The appropriate time, he hadn’t said. The letter had become the record.
The same day, in the Seanad, the Minister said it himself. “I will undertake that at the appropriate time.” Then: “I have said that in the Dáil. I am happy to say it again in the Seanad.”
At the end of July: “For the avoidance of doubt, there is no retention application relating to the flight paths at Dublin Airport.” No application, then. And the flight paths not flown as approved? Still not flown as approved.
Now, that Relevant Action. It’s about night-time hours. It proposes no routes. So the assessment of the flight paths is waiting for a decision on an application with no flight paths in it.
But there’s another review: the noise regulator’s, by CAA International, secret terms and all (story 5 has that one).
That review, says the Minister, “will help inform” future planning for the airport. Must it? “There is no specific statutory provision requiring that its outcome determine or direct future planning policy”.
And who decided that flight paths aren’t part of the planning permission? A TD asked. The Minister named no one. Flight paths “are not a condition of planning”, he said, and the assessment would happen at “the appropriate time”.
So, here’s where we’ve landed. daa offered its regulator the data on a menu, and the regulator never ordered. daa told the Minister it couldn’t review its flight paths until the Relevant Action set the baseline. The Minister promised the Dáil an independent assessment, no strings. Within a fortnight the string was back: “the appropriate time”, meaning the Relevant Action, meaning daa’s condition, now in the Minister’s mouth and credited to a debate where he never said it. The one review with a contract is secret, isn’t intended to be published, and doesn’t have to count. And the Relevant Action proposes no flight paths.
It’s nice to see a regulated company offering its regulator a menu for its data, and the State that owns it may look at its flight paths.
Sources
- Joint Committee on Transport and Communications, meeting of 19 June 2024, “Summer Plans for Dublin and Cork Airports: DAA”, official report (daa’s chief executive on a view on a better flight path by the end of the year, and “Yes” to the end-of-year timeline; the managing director of Dublin Airport: “We do not have a definitive timeframe”). oireachtas.ie: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/joint_committee_on_transport_and_communications/2024-06-19/
- Fingal County Council, Aircraft Noise Competent Authority, Direction to Provide Information ref. ANCA/DI-IA 01/2024, to daa plc on planning application F23A/0781, 1 March 2024, with Appendix A listing 47 items. Released to NRTG under AIE request AIE/2026/012 (Fingal County Council), 6 May 2026.
- Aircraft Noise (Dublin Airport) Regulation Act 2019 (No. 12 of 2019), section 9(10)(b): the airport authority “shall comply … as soon as is practicable”. Irish Statute Book: https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2019/act/12/enacted/en/html
- daa plc, letter to the Aircraft Noise Competent Authority in reply to Direction ANCA/DI-IA 01/2024, 29 November 2024 (the three options; “following receipt of the final NRRA decision”; “not dependent on the NRRA”; “We are happy to be led by you as to your preference”), and the Authority’s reply of 20 December 2024. Released to NRTG under AIE request AIE/2026/012 (Fingal County Council), 6 May 2026.
- An Coimisiún Pleanála, case ABP-314485-22 (Fingal reg. ref. F20A/0668), the North Runway Relevant Action: daa’s application to change the North Runway’s night-time operating conditions, decided 16 July 2025. Case page: https://www.pleanala.ie/en-ie/case/314485
- Dáil Éireann, written answer to Parliamentary Question 250 [31824/26], Minister for Transport, 30 April 2026 (the direction issued in March 2024; the data provided to the Aircraft Noise Competent Authority in November 2025). oireachtas.ie: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/question/2026-04-30/250/
- Minister for Transport, letter to the chief executive of daa, “daa Review of Flight Paths at Dublin Airport”, 5 September 2025, and the chief executive’s reply of 3 October 2025 (the processes “that will set the baseline”; “it would be inappropriate to embark on a flightpath review at this time”; a review “may not be significantly different from the current airspace design”). Released by the Department of Transport under FOI request 2026-0119, 10 June 2026 (Records 5 and 6). NRTG holds a copy.
- Joint Committee on Transport, meeting of 24 March 2026, “General Scheme of the Dublin Airport (Passenger Capacity) Bill 2026: Discussion (Resumed)”, evidence of the managing director of Dublin Airport (“because we need a baseline of the North Runway relevant action”; the official report and the Oireachtas TV recording differ slightly in wording). oireachtas.ie: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/joint_committee_on_transport/2026-03-24/
- Dáil Éireann, 23 June 2026, Dublin Airport (Passenger Capacity) Bill 2026: Second Stage, official report (the Minister for Transport: “I am committing here that we will carry out an independent assessment of flight paths”; “That is not acceptable”; “A retention application went in on that”). oireachtas.ie: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/2026-06-23/
- Dáil Éireann, 30 June 2026, Dublin Airport (Passenger Capacity) Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages, official report (the Minister’s commitment repeated; neither day’s record contains “appropriate time” or “relevant action”). oireachtas.ie: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/2026-06-30/
- Private Secretary to the Minister for Transport, letter to a member of the public, ref. TTAS-MO-03406-2026, 3 July 2026 (“at the appropriate time”; “when a final decision is made regarding the North Runway Relevant Action”). NRTG holds a copy.
- Dáil Éireann, written answer to Parliamentary Question 50 [52104/26], Minister for Transport, 8 July 2026 (the commitment made “at the recent second stage debate” to an assessment “at the appropriate time”). oireachtas.ie: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/question/2026-07-08/50/
- Seanad Éireann, 8 July 2026, Dublin Airport (Passenger Capacity) Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages, official report (the Minister: “I will undertake that at the appropriate time”; “I have said that in the Dáil. I am happy to say it again in the Seanad”). oireachtas.ie: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/seanad/2026-07-08/
- Dáil Éireann, written answers to Parliamentary Questions 392, 393, 397 and 398 [55499/26, 55500/26, 55551/26, 55552/26], Minister for Transport, 28 July 2026, answered together (“For the avoidance of doubt, there is no retention application relating to the flight paths at Dublin Airport”). oireachtas.ie: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/question/2026-07-28/392/
- Dáil Éireann, written answer to Parliamentary Question 271 [68418/26], Minister for Transport, 29 September 2026 (the review contract with CAA International Ltd; the terms of reference “are not being made publicly available”; “It is not currently intended to publish the report”). oireachtas.ie: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/question/2026-09-29/271/
- Dáil Éireann, written answer to Parliamentary Question 276 [68420/26], Minister for Transport, 29 September 2026 (the review of the Aircraft Noise Competent Authority “will help inform”; “there is no specific statutory provision requiring that its outcome determine or direct future planning policy”). oireachtas.ie: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/question/2026-09-29/276/
- Dáil Éireann, written answer to Parliamentary Question 269 [68427/26], Minister for Transport, 29 September 2026 (asked who determined that flight paths are not part of the planning permission: “flight paths are not a condition of planning at Dublin Airport”; the assessment “at the appropriate time”). oireachtas.ie: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/question/2026-09-29/269/