Fingal County council accused the DAA of “shocking” conduct in a complaint to the Department of Transport regarding the company’s campaign earlier this year to lift the 32 million passenger cap at Dublin Airport.
The January complaint from Fingal chief executive AnnMarie Farrelly does not mention DAA chief executive Kenny Jacobs by name but it takes issue with the way the State airport operator responded to an adverse planning ruling on its “no build” bid to lift the cap to 36 million.
Saying the DAA had released “two emails to give a false impression about replanning requests” to the local authority,Ms Farrelly made clear her displeasure in a note to the top aviation official in the department.
“All can be refuted with lots of records to show the reality,” Ms Farrelly told Ethna Brogan, assistant secretary in the Department of Transport with responsibility for aviation and emergency planning.
“Nevertheless something has to change here, it’s absolutely shocking behavior,” Ms Farrelly said in reference to the DAA. “I would welcome the prospect to discuss.”
Her email came after Fingal ruled the DAA’s request to raise the cap to 36 million passengers was invalid, prompting a furious response from Mr Jacobs, who accused planners of inconsistency.
Ms Farrelly included in her email to Ms Brogan a message from the Fingal communications chief Gerry McDermott to the DAA, in which he complained that the airport group had released a “covering email from a junior staff member” in the council.
“It might potentially be the DAA’s objective to have Dublin Airport classified as strategic national infrastructure but that’s not how it is indeed right now and publicly lampooning the council and its staff to support the argument doesn’t help foster good relations,” mr McDermott said.
Mr Jacobs had said earlier that fingal was “wrong” to suggest DAA had not discussed the “no-build” application with the local authority: “DAA engages extensively with [Fingal] on all planning matters and had more then 30 meetings with them last year,” Mr Jacobs said.
However, Ms Farrelly wrote a second email to Ms Brogan enclosing the “agreed minutes” of a December 5th, 2024, meeting with DAA, a fortnight before it lodged the disputed application.