Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Did the Minister answer anything? Both of my colleagues made excellent points and articulated the issue better than I did. This is about noise mitigation so our objective is to get the noise-mitigation measures in place as early as possible. I agree with Deputy Troy's point that implementation can take time, but stopping a certain activity could be done immediately. That is why I included "if immediate implementation is not possible”. Obviously, the authority should have power where a measure requires a lead-in period but Deputy Brendan Ryan's point in this regard is exactly right in that if we are giving it the power of deferral, we have to include some caveats; otherwise it should not be given the power to defer because its job is supposed to be implementing noise-mitigation measures. The Minister is the one who introduced the concept of deferring. We are just trying to add safeguards, in a common-sense way. We realise some things cannot be done overnight and that there may be a lead-in time but the authority has to be able to justify its decisions and there cannot be spurious reasons given. I am not happy with the Minister's proposal at all. I am not saying mine is the solution but what the Minister said in his answer is definitely not. It was a worrying answer.