Residents living under new flight path say it's like "living in war zone" - RTÉ Prime Time report

Prime Time will an interesting watch for families in south Meath this evening as it focuses on the impact on residents who have unexpectedly found themselves living under a new flight path following the opening of Dublin Airport's north runway last year.

They are calling for the Government to intervene and force the operator of Dublin Airport to change its air routes.

Tonight Prime Time on RTÉ one shines a light on residents who say they feel like they are living in a "war zone" ever since.

Earlier this year the Meath Chronicle revealed how life had become a nightmare for residents of the Greenogue area outside Ashbourne since the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) revised flight paths according to local residents.

They claimed their homes shook, windows and chimneys rattled with the noise being deafening and there had been no engagement with them.

In july The Dublin Airport Authority lodged two separate planning applications for aircraft noise monitoring equipment in Ratoath and Ashbourne.

RTÉ reports that parents from one family, Dr Niamh Maher and her husband Brian Murphy received planning permission to build a new home near St Margaret's in 2018. At that time, there was no requirement for noise mitigation measures, such as insulation, in their new home, because the flight path expected to be in operation for the planned north runway was different to the one now in use.

The new €320m north runway at Dublin Airport opened on 24 August last year.

Since then, Dr Maher said the noise levels have been intolerable. She is calling for the Government to step in and force the operators of the airport, daa – formerly Dublin Airport Authority - to change the flight path.

"We knew the way the flight paths were meant to be, certain homes had mitigation measures in place and buyouts were offered in relation to where the planes were meant to fly," Dr Maher told Prime Time.

"We thought that everything would be absolutely fine because it wasn't anywhere in the planning that this was actually going to happen," explained Dr Niamh Maher, who works as a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist and is a mother of two children under five.

Dr Maher said when the runway first opened her husband was in the house and immediately was concerned about the noise.

"He said it felt a bit like an earthquake, a tremor going through the house, and then it was gone. He didn't really know what it was," she said.

The flights the next morning started at 7am, Dr Maher said, adding: "I got home at midday and it literally felt like a war zone.

"My daughter, when we got home that day, she started crying because she got a huge fright from the noise of the planes. She was terrified by how low they were, and she was just like 'why is this happening?' The same with my son. He also had a huge fright and was just literally saying nothing."

Dublin Airport has wanted to have parallel runways since the 1960s, to give it greater flexibility in terms of take-off and landings, but also allow it to continue to grow.

The development of the new northern runway was proposed in 2004, and a contentious planning process proceeded over the following three years. More than 1,000 submissions were made, many from residents in surrounding areas of north county Dublin, who raised noise concerns.

During the planning process, environmental assessments were carried out in relation to places where the noise would impact residents. Those assessments were based on the planes, in westerly wind conditions, flying straight out from the proposed new runway.

Noise contour maps were drawn up based on that proposed flight path.

Based on those maps, in areas where noise levels were expected to be problematic, the Dublin Airport Authority opened a scheme to pay for special insulation to be installed in properties, and a buyout option for homeowners in specific areas who wished to move away.

Planning permission was granted by An Bord Pleanála in 2007 with conditions attached relating to times when planes could land and depart from the new runway, due to noise concerns.

No specific planning conditions were attached defining which flight paths were to be operated, but the planning process was informed by the aforementioned environmental impact assessments.

Yet when the runway opened, the flights were following a different flight path to the one used in the assessments.

Residents more than 10km away, in areas such as Ashbourne, Ratoath and Ballyboughal, started to complain about the noise.

Kieran Dineen and Isabel Perceval's report on noise concerns related to Dublin Airport features on tonight's edition of Prime Time, at 9.35pm on RTÉ One