Mr. Mark Griffin:

That would be an accurate characterisation of the position. What is needed is a crude setback distance that will be applied rigidly. It would give little or no capacity to local authorities or An Bord Pleanála to make decisions because they would be locked into a framework. In setting noise limits we would be imposing obligations on developers to prove as part of the planning process that what they were asserting in terms of the location of the development complied with the noise limits set. This would impose a further obligation on them to develop technologies that would mitigate the impact of noise.