Mr. Ronan Gallagher:

Under primary legislation, decisions on what is allowed will be made based on what is in the Statute Book and in accordance with European law. The clunky bit to which the Deputy referred is meant to ensure the DAA and local residents will have certainty that a three-card trick is not being played and that the existing operating restrictions will be applied to the new regime. If it is subsequently decided that other measures must be introduced, they will be but subject only to public consultation. That is why it is clunky.

The regulation does not speak to planning and development issues. Some of the complexity in adapting it for use in Ireland stems from the fact that we are introducing it in the middle of Dublin Airport's development. No other member state is developing in that space. The directive envisaged being let loose for the future; it did not envisage any legacy issue.

Without speaking ill of a European regulation, when read from cover to cover, it does not move seamlessly from one step to the next. Frankly, it has been a job trying to interpret in what order things are to happen and when. That has also caused us a significant amount of grief. This is a much larger Bill than we ever would have liked, but we are trying to be as honest and transparent as we can, which is why we have ended up with it.