A second terminal at Dublin airport is necessary in order to cope with the huge growth in the numbers of passengers, an oral hearing was told yesterday.
Mark Foley, director of capital programmes at the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), told the Bord Pleanála hearing that about 22 million passengers use the airport each year.
He said it had a nominal capacity of between 15 and 20 million, but since a six-bay extension was opened in 2001 there had been a huge growth in peak-hour activity and the size of the aircraft using the airport.
Mr Foley said the airport had been using a range of "quasi-emergency" measures to try to cope with congestion and said the figure of 22 million was not "a level that we believe is appropriate for passengers". Parts of the system get "very close to breakdown" in the summer, he added.
He said that the two terminals would cater for 10-15 million passengers each, and a second terminal would allow the DAA to remodel and improve terminal one.
Mr Foley was responding to questioning by Angela Lawton, one of a number of Portmarnock residents opposing the development.
Mark Hanley of Uproar, a Portmarnock residents' group opposing the location of the new runway, questioned the process by which the location of the terminal was chosen.
Earlier, Regine Weston, a consultant working with the DAA, presented evidence which she said clarified capacity issues raised by Ryanair. She suggested that, with a second terminal in place, Dublin airport could cope with peak-hour capacity demands placed on it by airlines.
Ms Weston said the annual number of passengers using the airport would reach between 28 and 32 million passengers, rather than the "outlandish" figures of 46 to 52 million put forward by consultant Louise Congdon.
She said a lower level of service model, as suggested by Ryanair, would not necessarily mean that less airport space is required, as it would result in longer queuing time and a smaller space in which passengers could queue.
The DAA expects that the 75,000sq m second terminal will be ready in late 2009. Fingal County Council approved planning permission for the terminal in October last year, subject to 43 conditions.