Mr. Ronan Gallagher:

That took a bit of explaining to the Government as well and to officials. It is the natural fallout of what we are doing. The idea was not to have a situation where we would have a planning application for a significant development at Dublin Airport directly to An Bord Pleanála and then appeals on noise at the airport also going to An Bord Pleanála. The board is supposed to be the independent appeals body for development at the airport in respect of noise and also the planning decision body for development. The only option was to revert to a two-step process for both where they needed to be aligned. Where development and noise were happening at the same time, they could go in tandem. In discussions on this with our colleagues in the Department of Housing, Planning and the Local Government and the DAA, we have a view that it should not make a material difference. There were not evidentially huge advantages to the DAA in respect of SID. It works differently for different areas but this is a one site one company issue and there was a feeling that the other system would work as well. We are, however, conscious of it.

We will endeavour to address the timeframe as Deputy Troy has suggested. We will try to be specific on that front. On the dual process, it is essentially a case of risk. We need to make sure we have as much cover as possible in the system for all parties, the DAA and the stakeholders. When we are looking at the legacy issue, we have to make sure there are not any chinks or avenues where people can say the process is not right and proper. That is what it is trying to do. Hopefully, over the next few weeks when we get into further detailed legal consideration, if we can find a more streamlined way that is legally sound, we will certainly go for it. We may end up, though, with something that is slightly suboptimal. The two Departments are clear on the general point about Fingal. The Government has decided it is the only game in town. Our challenge now is to make it work and give it the resources to make it work. It is in everybody's interest to have a process that is transparent but also comes to a decision in good time.