Local Swords councillor, Joe Newman has slammed the DAA and demanded that a new airport be developed close to the capital to manage the huge increase in demand for airline travel. “Improved management of the Irish aviation sector is crucial”, he says.Newman describes the North Runway project at Dublin airport to be a catastrophic failure. Currently, the management of the new North runway has caused a huge discomfort and annoyance to the residents of the Fingal region, and he warns that potential health risks must be taken much more seriously. The local councillor has called on officials at Fingal County Council to insist that the DAA comply with the planning conditions as agreed by the authority. “The DAA are showing limited regard for people of Fingal and their very poor management of airport growth is becoming the norm” Newman said. Further, he questioned why ANCA (Airport Noise Competent Authority) were based at the offices of Fingal County Council. Newman insists that ANCA should be based in offices at arms distance from both the airport and the local authority. This is not simply a question of policing the DAA but matters in protecting the public. Councillor Newman says that the residents of Ridgewood and Boroimhe estates in Swords who live just one kilometre or so away from the new runway have had their privacy shattered with this huge noise disturbance invading their homes.He went on to point out the significant noise disturbance at St. Margaret’s, Kilsallaghan and Oldtown. These towns are under the flight path where planes make a sharp turn which is in contravention to the original flight path promoted by the DAA in previous consultations on the noise contours. And for the residents of some estates in the Rivervalley area in Swords, who have for years put up with a lot of noise from airplanes taking off from the South runway, they now must deal with an increased amount of noise from the north runway and the fact that planes are taking off at much lower altitudes. Councillor Newman is demanding that the DAA are instructed to return immediately to the original planning conditions as set out by Fingal County Council, and that the ANCA decision to allow the erosion of terms of night flying hours be reversed forthwith. “The ANCA decision to increase the night-time flying hours is simply the thin edge of the wedge to all night flying” he said. Newman concluded “We need another airport to limit the growing pressure on Dublin Airport”.