Recent difficulties with its £1 billion expansion scheme for the State's three main airports have not deterred Aer Rianta from progressing its latest phase of development at Dublin Airport.
According to two planning applications lodged with Fingal County Council recently, Aer Rianta is seeking permission to commence a new development which includes the demolition of existing buildings used for storage and maintenance.
Under an application for phase two of this project, lodged at the same time, the company is also seeking permission for a new two-storey ramp, and an accommodation building. Also envisaged is ancillary parking, the realignment of an existing service road and the landside/airside boundary fence.
However, the Government, which ultimately owns Aer Rianta, has said it has not yet ruled out the construction of a new terminal building to serve Dublin. Early next month the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, is due to present an information note to Cabinet on the construction of a second terminal.
A number of interested parties have been lobbying the Government to develop a new terminal at the airport - particularly as passenger numbers are expected to top 14 million this year.
However, as the building work at the airport continues there has been criticism that those interested in providing a second terminal were not given State approval some years past.
Fine Gael's spokesman on Public Enterprise, Mr Jim Higgins, has criticised the delay, saying consideration of a second terminal has come four and a half years too late.
Mr Higgins claimed that by the time planning and construction had been completed, it could take up to five years before a second terminal would open for business, if approved.
Aviation entrepreneur Mr Ulick McEvaddy was slightly more optimistic on a time-frame for opening a new airport terminal. He said that the terminal that he and his brother, Mr Des McEvaddy, were proposing could be operational within three years if it got the go-ahead. He said a second terminal would cost in excess of £100m (€127m).
The McEvaddy brothers, who own a strip of land adjacent to Dublin Airport, have repeatedly tried to get approval to build a second terminal there. The original terminal plans, submitted in 1996, would have cost between £50 and £60 million, he claimed.
