WICKLOW TDS AND Councillors have reacted with surprise and some bemusement to a proposed plan for a new airport in Arklow.
As first reported by the Business Post at the weekend, a Middle Eastern investment consortium is advancing plans to build an international airport in the county.
A consultant acting on behalf of the group of investors claims to have provisional deals already in place to buy land from farmers and other locals.
Speaking to The Journal, Shane Desmond, a property consultant acting on behalf of the investors, said over 600 acres of the required 800 have already been provisionally secured for the proposed East Leinster International Airport.
Desmond said it was an “exciting project” but one that is at an early stage.
A spokesperson for the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) told The Journal it has had no contact with any representatives about a proposed international airport and nor has it received any application for an airport in Wicklow.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Wicklow County Council also said senior management has had no discussions in relation to the proposal.
Green Party TD for Wicklow Steven Matthews said his first thought when he heard about the proposal was that it was a late April Fool’s joke.
Matthews said it is “improbable” that the plans will come to fruition.
He said from a planning perspective, there’s no objective in any Wicklow development planning documents that would suggest an airport is appropriate for the county.
“To me, it sounds like a very pie in the sky, speculative proposal,” he said.
Matthews made the point that consideration would have to be given to whether the proposals align with Ireland’s National Development Plan and with the country’s climate targets and transport objectives.
“It doesn’t fit with any of those,” he said.
Likewise, Social Democrats TD for Wicklow Jennifer Whitmore said she had not heard about the proposals before reading about it in the Business Post but has since had several phone calls from concerned locals.
Whitmore said there is no business case for an airport in the area given the proximity of both Dublin Airport and Waterford Airport.
She also said that from an environmental perspective, we are past the point of an additional airport being acceptable.
I’ve had some constituents get in touch with me and they are absolutely against it.
“For the people of Arklow, they also wouldn’t want to be under an airport flight path – that kind of infrastructure has a big cost to people locally,” Whitmore said.
She added that her instinct is that the plans are purely speculative and “pie in the sky”.
“It’s outside the scope of everybody’s thinking. I can’t see it going any further,” Whitmore said.
Similarly, none of the local councillors that The Journal spoke to were familiar with the plans.
Fianna Fáil’s Pat Fitzgerald said the Business Post’s story was also the first he heard about it but he noted that similar plans had been floated a little over 10 years ago.
“It would be great maybe if it did happen, but in my opinion it would be difficult,” Fitzgerald said.
He added however that he would need to know more about the proposals and hear from locals first before supporting any proposals.
Fitzgerald also made the point that if plans for the airport are progressed it would be a very long time before it actually came to fruition.
Wicklow County Council members are set to discuss the proposal later today.
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