Mr. Ronan Gallagher:

The Chairman has raised a number of issues. I will take them in reverse order and deal with the question about An Bord Pleanála first. The issue with An Bord Pleanála is that it makes decisions whereas what we need is a regulator that will also monitor and manage noise proactively. It does not have such executive functions and is not, therefore, appropriate.

In addition to that, because Regulation No. 598 needs an appeals mechanism it seemed obvious it would provide it. With regard to the choice of other agencies, I would not characterise it as people being able to step out of the limelight by choice. When we sat down with officials and the agencies and worked through it, it did not need a huge amount of in-depth analysis to work out the obvious problems and capacity issues. It lent itself to Fingal County Council being the competent authority. There is certainly no attempt in the general scheme of the Bill to cut across local democracy or the role of council members. That part reflects the norm in the planning process. It prevents - "interference" is not the right word - that type of link to specific decisions in the council's work on local area development planning. That will all be the big picture stuff.