Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, will shortly go to Cabinet with proposals on a new terminal for Dublin Airport. Ulick McEvaddy gives Emmet Oliver his view on the subject

Being the wealthiest brothers in Ireland, there cannot be too much frustration in the lives of Ulick and Desmond McEvaddy.

But the owners of Omega Air must feel a certain level of frustration every morning when they drive, via the N2, into their offices near Dublin Airport.

All around them are lush green fields that in another part of the State would be eyed up enviously by local farmers. The fields make up the McEvaddy's 140-acre land bank that adjoins Dublin Airport.

In another time and another location, it might be wonderful agricultural land. Situated near the rapidly expanding suburbs of Blanchardstown and Swords, it might even be prime building land if it was a few miles to the west or north.

But as the McEvaddys know to their acute frustration, the land sits right beside the runway at Dublin Airport and, consequently, its full commercial potential can be unlocked only if a terminal is developed on site.

That is why Ulick McEvaddy, a tall avuncular man, has deliberately drawn the media spotlight on himself this week.

While his more restrained brother, Desmond, likes to keep his counsel, Ulick is livelier and appears to enjoy talking people through the ambitious plan for Terminal 2.

With the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, shortly to go to Cabinet with proposals on the issue, there is no mistaking the McEvaddys' view of what he should do.

"It's time to bite the bullet and get on with it," says Mr McEvaddy, adding that the first impression visitors get of a country is the airport and the current impression is not good.

"It should be a showcase but the current airport is not - it is a series of afterthoughts."

As for Aer Rianta, while Mr McEvaddy would be prepared to work with it on a new terminal, he is scathing about the State company's role at the airport in recent years.

"They have these red zones, which are for safety, and say you can't build anywhere near them, yet they build things near them themselves." He says Aer Rianta's decision to take a legal challenge to a determination by the airports regulator, Mr Bill Prasifka, was farcical.

"Here we have one branch of the Government taking a court case against another branch of the Government. What were they doing? That was a dumb thing to do."

Mr McEvaddy has traditionally been regarded as a Fine Gael supporter but he has wined and dined members of the current Government, including the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, and the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, at his luxurious home in the south of France.

This apparent closeness to senior Government members might be the biggest obstacle to the brothers getting the go-ahead, but Mr McEvaddy is firm that the project stands up on its merits.

"We have been turned down before by all sorts of politicians in relation to the terminal. But we still believe this is the best way to get new airlines into Dublin and make Dublin a European hub."

It is no surprise to hear that Mr McEvaddy was in the army; his tall frame and military bearing are evidence of this, not to mention his damaged hearing.

With pin-striped suit and glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, he could easily pass for a London City broker but his broad Mayo accent intrudes and you get the sense that he is a west of Ireland man through and through, albeit one who owns a private Cessna Citation jet.

While Omega Air continues to provide most of the McEvaddy brothers' wealth (extra business from the US military has come their way recently thanks to war in Iraq), if they pull off the terminal project the scale of their business activities would be utterly transformed.

With a construction price tag of €450 million, the terminal would be a massive project. While Mr McEvaddy points to the €50 million Malahide marina project the brothers undertook, the terminal would be on an entirely different scale - a truly national project.

Mr McEvaddy says he and his brother realise this and have no intention of managing their terminal.

"We are a property company in this context and that is how we are approaching this thing," he says.

He shows this reporter how far advanced the project already is: a letter from Aer Lingus chief executive Mr Willie Walsh saying the airline would be prepared to act as "anchor tenant", a letter from Anglo Irish Bank promising to organise a €450 million syndicated bank loan and finally a letter from airport management company Serco promising to run the airport on behalf of the McEvaddys.

While this all appears very smooth, what would a McEvaddy-owned terminal do for the ordinary travelling punter?

"The existing airport is congested, there are problems with capacity and problems with vehicular access. We can address those and provide a more efficient facility, which will mean passengers getting to their flights quicker with less delays and queuing. It will be a more pleasant experience, a properly regulated and designed airport," he says. He claims all sorts of people are badly served by the existing airport. "A handicapped person has to use five lifts before they get to their car at present," he states.

While not enamoured of Aer Rianta's performance at the airport, he is not a big admirer of Ryanair chief executive Mr Michael O'Leary's plans either. "I like Michael and I know he spends a lot of time beating up on Aer Rianta, but I think the Ryanair plan is not going to work. They will have to knock down loads of hangars and other buildings, even a church I hear, and re-build them elsewhere on the airport site and that is going to cost a lot of money. They are using a figure of €140 million, I am not so sure about that," he says.

He says the McEvaddys and their partners, among them property developer Gerry Gannon, could recoup the massive outlay within 20 years. But how?

"We would maximise the retail side of the business. We would have 50-plus outlets and would spread our costs over these commercial outlets, thereby reducing charges," he says.

He says the brothers have looked at Barcelona airport as a model ("it's like Grafton Street") and would replicate it at Dublin.

"We would also plan to have a hotel, offices, warehousing and a business park. They will also play a part in the business model."

On the charges issue, he says Aer Rianta would still collect the landing fees as owners of the runway, but a new terminal would be competitive on the passenger load fee - the charge levied every time a passenger enters the terminal.

"We would have to be, otherwise we could not be able to keep the airlines. We have no choice but to be competitive.

"We believe we can undercut the current Aer Rianta rates," says Mr McEvaddy.

"Dublin Airport is of its time. It is now too spread out with piers A, B and C distributed in an ad-hoc manner. We will do everything together.

"Aer Rianta is restricted by the size of its site. Our terminal would have very little problems, we could eventually handle up to 20 million passengers a year," he says.

Parking would be easily accommodated on the 140-acre site. "Our plan envisages 2,000 short-term spaces and 6,000 long-term spaces, with room for 1,000 staff."

Most of these parts of the McEvaddy plan would probably be achievable, but what about planning permission, which tends to bog down big infrastructural projects in this country?

"Well, the land is zoned as a designated airport area so that should speed things up. We don't need a zoning change, so that makes the area very advantageous.

"Our location is our advantage. We believe we could have cargo facilities up and running within a year and we could accept passengers in 2½ years."