Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister made the point that if one asks the same question, one will get the same answer but the problem is that we have been asking some of the same questions and have got either no answer or contradictory answers. The Minister failed to address that point. The essence of the point that was being made was that over the course of the past two and a half years when we have talked about this issue, on some occasions, the Minister said "black" while on another occasion, he said "white". Which one is the right answer when at various times, the Minister has given two diametrically opposed answers to the same question? The point I made about the Minister referring to past information referred to his critique of the other agencies that might act as a competent authority and the briefing from his Department in November 2018 that he rehearsed for us today when he dealt with points and dismissed the CAR using the same line he took in November but where he failed to address the question he was being asked. He has not reflected the fact that aviation regulation and the IAA's regulatory functions are being subsumed in this new CAR and that this is the body we envisage would take ownership of all regulatory functions relating to aviation. The Minister cannot have his cake and eat it. He cannot say that he is sorry for delaying the Bill, that he knows he is partly responsible for that and that we must rush it now because we are all to blame. We are not all to blame. It is not better to have bad law than no law at all. We have to get this right.

Perhaps the Minister could help us. He said that he is convinced that Fingal County Council is the best choice. As we are not convinced of that, the answers he has given us have not overcome that. Could the Minister give us an explanation of what the nine people will be doing? As the Minister has looked at it sufficiently to state there are nine people at these particular pay grades, what does he envisage those people doing on a day-to-day basis? How would it work? How would it fit in with the rest of the local authority? We are talking about nine people on various grades, which is not really sufficient at some level. Could the Minister tell us what they would do to give us an idea of how it might address some of our concerns in terms of how this will work?