Mr. Ronan Gallagher:

To take Deputy Troy's question first, in terms of other member states, there is a mixed bag of how this has been implemented and, in a way, it reflects how member states organise their aviation policy and regulation. In some jurisdictions it is true that the transport department has taken responsibility for this. That tends to be in member states where the transport department directly regulates aviation as well, which is what was the practice in the 1990s when the Department was directly responsible for aviation regulation, but that is mostly done now by the Irish Aviation Authority, IAA, and the Commission for Aviation Regulation. I understand that Germany and the UK have gone down the road of local authorities. During the summer the UK implemented Regulation No. 598 in that way. We are confident in an Irish context that this makes sense. We have engaged with the European Commission to check that our ground on this is safe and it has not has not raised any issues on that and, in many respects, it has reinforced the idea that Fingal County Council is a sensible choice by virtue of the very strong relationship between Regulation No. 598 and a previous noise directive, No. 2002/49, which is a much broader environmental noise directive for which Fingal County Council already has responsibility. The Commission views Regulation No. 598 as a top-up of that regulation. Much of the work done under the 2002 directive in terms of noise mapping and the preparation of a noise action plan, on which Fingal County Council has already been working this year, lead into Regulation No. 598. Therefore, there is a high level of synergy on that front.

We are confident that Fingal County Council has expertise on the environmental side, but it will have to build up additional expertise in this area. However, it is already involved in monitoring and measuring noise levels in Fingal, specifically around the site of Dublin Airport. While giving it these new functions will certainly add extra work, it will be an extension of work it is already doing.

The issue of conflict has come up a few times at Question Time in the Dáil Chamber. As the Minister explained, rates revenue from Dublin Airport is approximately 15% of Fingal County Council's total rates income, but when all of the council's income is considered, the figure is about 8%. It is not an insignificant amount, but at the same time the council has many other sources of income, including local property tax from residents. We were very careful to examine the issue of conflict, but we are clear that given the way local authorities work, they often need to issue planning permission for commercial or residential properties and make decisions on zoning and planning, all of which give rise in due course to an income stream. Therefore, they have existing systems to ensure there are no undue influences or conflicts in that regard. We are confident in building on this.