Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien has confirmed that legislation to abolish the controversial passenger cap at Dublin Airport will go to Cabinet on Tuesday.
The passenger cap currently limits the number of people passing through Dublin Airport to 32 million.
The Dublin Airport (Passenger Capacity) Bill 2026 will prevent any new cap being imposed and remove responsibility for the DAA – which operates the airport – from Fingal County Council and place it with An Coimisiún Pleanála.
The new law should be passed by the end of the year.
The cap was imposed by the local authority after the completion of the airport’s second terminal in 2007, over concerns that the roads nearby could not handle the additional traffic.
Due to the cap, the number of passengers who can travel to and from the airport is also limited, as is the number of slots available for airlines to use.
Ryanair, which successfully challenged the cap last year to temporarily place a stay on it, has previously described it as an ‘international embarrassment’.
Dublin Airport had its busiest year ever in 2025, with a record 36.43 million passengers passing through its terminals
However, Children’s Rights Over Flights spokesperson Louise O’Leary said the state had a ‘duty to rapidly cut emissions to protect the rights and welfare of children’.
‘This bill is in direct opposition to what we need to do to protect our kids and grandkids, as it will massively increase fossil fuel pollution’, she said.
‘This is a climate issue, this is a child rights issue, this is a public health issue. Those things have just been repeatedly ignored in conversation and in coverage of the passenger cap.’
Ms O’Leary added: ‘Ireland has one of the higher rates of flying in Europe’ and raised the concern that failing to reduce emissions is in direct violation of the Paris Agreement.
‘We have a responsibility to protect children from harm’, Ms O’Leary said.
‘Every sector has to play a part, and aviation doesn’t. The notion that there aren’t enough flights to leave the island is ludicrous and needs to be challenged.
‘One of the most frightening things about this bill is that the emissions impacts and the climate harms have not been evaluated of what impact it would have if the bill is removed outright.’
