Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have no doubt the Minister's figure significantly understates it. Leaving that aside, while we may be able to accept that officials in Fingal County Council will adjudicate on the two planning conditions, it will be difficult for residents, including me, to accept it is an independent authority overseeing conditions imposed on it by the board which it did not impose itself. People will not accept that. We want buy-in from people and the Minister was good enough to meet and hear the concerns of a number of groups last year with me and other colleagues. They did not say they did not want a second runway or development at the airport. They said they wanted the airport to be a good neighbour. We are being sold a pig in a poke.

Will Fingal County Council be the noise regulator for Shannon Airport and Cork Airport? We will have a different regime with three different regulators on an island with the same population as Manchester. That does not make any sense.

The Taoiseach has set up this cross-departmental group and I am still at a loss to see exactly how it will work. Who will lead it? Will it be the Taoiseach or the Minister?

There is no way the Minister will meet the timeframe of the end of December. More than 17,000 people are directly employed at Dublin Airport and its campus and there are tens of thousands of indirect jobs. Many local people recognise that the airport generates 4% of GNP. We are very proud of our airport and the work that is done there. The Minister's and Department's stewardship of the development of the second runway and securing buy-in from the local community leaves a lot to be desired. We brought people along with this process, which I have been dealing with since 2004 when I was elected to the council. They are now very concerned about the ham-fisted manner in which the issue is being dealt with. This will put jobs in the airport and its future development at risk. We will not get an independent regulator.

The Chairman has been here all morning. I came in at the very end because I was at other meetings. The Minister will not meet the timeframes outlined here and it is fantasy to say he will. We are putting at risk the jobs in the airport and the potential of the airport. We are putting at risk the communities adjacent to the airport who have bought into the need to develop the airport. I do not understand why this cross-departmental group has been foisted on the Minister. According to the timeframe, he will publish the Bill on 7 November and it will pass both Houses and be signed by the President by 31 December. That is fantasy.