Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Finishing up on the issue of where we all stand, my impression before Christmas was that all parties barring Fine Gael were putting it to the Minister that Fingal County Council was not appropriate, that it was important to have complete independence, and that we had to be honest with residents. That does not now seem to be the case because if Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael vote for the Bill as it stands, the council will be the competent authority. We have to be upfront with people that this is what is happening. I hope that will change before Report Stage as a result of dialogue with the residents, but that is where it stands now.

Amendment No. 9, which Deputy Troy just mentioned, provides that the director of the aircraft noise regulator section of the council shall not be subject to the direction of any other person. First, as Deputy Munster has said, the CEO is the top person in the council. Not only that, but page 7 of the legislation itself makes it absolutely and abundantly clear that the "the functions of the competent authority [...] shall be performed by the chief executive". The chief executive of the council will override any other section in the council so Deputy Troy's amendment will do nothing to protect the regulator's independence.

On the issue of time, we absolutely agree that we do not want to delay necessary development but no matter whether one is recruiting for the council, the EPA or the Commission for Aviation Regulation, it takes the same amount of time so that argument is completely redundant. The people with the necessary skills will need to be found regardless of which body is made the competent authority.

Obviously Deputy Troy is the spokesperson for the biggest Opposition party and he has been doing the running all along, but there is no point doing the running and then falling back at the time when one is needed, that is, at the finish line. If the Deputy wants to continue on with what he says he has been doing he needs to stick by the amendments which have been tabled such as, for example, amendment No. 6, which deletes Fingal County Council as the competent authority, or amendment No. 5.