If we make it too difficult – and too costly – for Irish businesses to export goods out of the country, we will be stripping Ireland’s successful economic model of one of its key drivers

Since the pandemic, we have all been buying more and more online. Last year alone, online shipments into Ireland reached almost €16 billion. When we talk about Ireland being a globally open economy, it’s true to say that Ireland’s globally open consumers are an important part of that. But it’s not all one way.

Last year, nearly a quarter of Irish enterprises shipped orders to customers located outside Ireland. That’s billions and billions of Irish exports – direct-to-consumer – being facilitated by e-commerce.

Ireland can be proud of our high-performing e-commerce sector. Successive governments and state agencies, from Enterprise Ireland to Local Enterprise Offices, deserve massive credit for supporting Irish businesses, from retailers to manufacturers to service providers, to move online and sell more via e-commerce channels.

Ireland’s e-commerce exports have also been facilitated by Ireland’s strong international connectivity. As an island economy, Ireland depends on an effective and extensive network of airline and ferry connections. In recent months, we saw the significant disruption caused to Irish imports and exports by storm damage at Holyhead Port. As a country which thrives on trade and tourism, we should never take our international connectivity for granted. Yet, that is exactly what we are doing.

The Dublin Airport Passenger Cap, 2025

While there has been much debate regarding the controversial passenger cap at Dublin Airport, a parallel proposal from An Bord Pleanála to restrict night-time flights at Dublin Airport is slowly beginning to attract attention – and rightly so. This proposal represents nothing less than economic folly and poses a substantial threat to Irish trade, including in Ireland’s e-commerce sector.

An Bord Pleanála is currently proposing to slash flights at Dublin Airport between 11pm and 7am from 24,000 to 16,000 per annum. To put this in context, night-time flights into Dublin Airport carry around €19 billion worth of imports and exports every year, representing 12 per cent of total imports and 6 per cent of exports based on 2024 figures. Many of these flights operate at night. If An Bord Pleanála gets its way, these cuts to night-time flights could impact over €10 billion worth of Irish exports and imports.

The newly adopted Programme for Government warns explicitly that the Irish economy is ‘facing new headwinds.’ During the recent election, and again over recent weeks, there have been repeated concerns expressed by Irish political leaders regarding the risk of ‘trade shocks’ to Ireland.

With the strong likelihood that U.S. tariffs will soon hit EU exports to that country, these concerns are now ominously real. At a time of global risk, Ireland should not be introducing our own self-imposed ‘trade shocks’ which is exactly what will happen if we slash our economy’s capacity to move goods on and off our island by air.

If we make it too difficult – and too costly – for Irish businesses to export goods out of the country, we will be stripping Ireland’s successful economic model of one of its key drivers. Michael Lohan, chief executive of IDA Ireland, warned that a global race for investment is making it harder for small nations like Ireland to attract investment than before. The effect of tariffs and the potential contraction of revenues from global trade puts this into an even sharper perspective. Just as every advantage we have in attracting investment must be used, as we have always done, every possible drawback must be eliminated. As a small island nation, we simply cannot afford to be putting limitations on our ambitions for growth.

Our own airlines, Aer Lingus and Ryanair, are increasingly speaking out against the restrictive policies being imposed on Dublin Airport, with Aer Lingus CEO Lynn Embleton reported as referring to the proposed night-flights limit was ‘madness’. It’s time for the policymakers to take note and to take action.

As things currently stand, a decision on the current proposal to slash night-time flights rests in the hands of An Bord Pleanála. But given the serious levels of harm that this proposal could impose on the Irish economy, it is vital that Ministers right across Government intervene to review the threats and examine what’s right from a policy point-of-view, particularly since the new Programme for Government commits to ‘develop air cargo infrastructure’.

The Government must put the national interest first.

DP Fitzgerald is a national spokesperson for Digital Business Ireland