Residents of north Co Dublin are to join an international day of protest against night-time flights following a recent report indicating growing exposure in the area.
The International Day for the Ban on Night Flights at Airports is being observed this Friday in countries as far away as Australia and has more than 100 affiliate groups.
“[There] has been an awful lot of research done in recent years showing how damaging it is to people’s health,” said Liam O’Gradaigh, of the St Margaret’s The Ward residents’ committee, of such flights. “The movements have just increased [and] increased, they are just stretching into the night time. It’s [about] people’s health; their right to sleep.”
The Stay Grounded group behind this week’s multinational protest describes itself as a combination of communities affected by aircraft noise, climate justice activists, academics, trade unionists and transport sector workers.
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It is calling for an immediate cessation of nocturnal flights, which it says have an “unreasonable burden with particularly harmful health consequences for all people in the vicinity of airports”.
[ Dublin ‘noise maps’: How noise-polluted is your neighbourhood?Opens in new window ]
Signatory groups come from countries including the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Australia and the United States.
A report last month from Ireland’s Aircraft Noise Competent Authority (Anca), the body tasked with monitoring noise levels, showed the number of people living near Dublin Airport exposed to high levels at night-time had “significantly increased”. It said the numbers experiencing noise above 55 decibels between 11pm and 7am increased from 1,533 in 2019 to 4,465 last year.
However, the number deemed to be “highly sleep disturbed” last year had dropped by almost a third (31 per cent) since 2019, while those categorised as “highly annoyed” by noise were found to have fallen by 38 per cent.
The St Margaret’s The Ward group argues that more regulatory emphasis is needed on cutting high levels of disruption closer to the airport rather than looking at more widespread trends.
It has noted a previous analysis compiled by Dr John Garvey, consultant respiratory and sleep physician at St Vincent’s University Hospital, who highlighted links between insufficient sleep and an elevated risk of chronic health conditions such as cardiovascular disease.
In response to the Anca report, airport operator DAA said it was aware its operations have an impact on local communities and “works hard to minimise” this. It operates several noise mitigation measures and said it was “eager to progress” insulation for more than 600 homes, but this plan was subject to an ongoing An Bord Pleanála review.
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