Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 139:

In page 42, to delete lines 28 to 38, and in page 43, to delete lines 1 to 10 and substitute the following:

“(4)The competent authority may impose a financial penalty of 10 per cent of the cost of compliance for failure to comply with a relevant provision, or €1,000 for each breach, whichever is higher.”.

I would like this to be discussed. I am not sure about it and it is certainly inadequately drafted by me in its present form but I will explain the idea behind it and we will see what we can do between now and Report Stage.

This is the section that deals with the issue of enforcement notices. We are obviously talking about an enforcement notice being served primarily on the DAA, which is a massive institution. The idea that it would ignore an enforcement notice is abhorrent and it would be outrageous for that to happen.

The State needs to have some meaty mechanism if that is to arise. This legislation proposes that the authority can be brought to the High Court. However, bringing the DAA to the High Court would take forever, and all the while a noise enforcement notice which had been issued could be ignored. Organisations like the DAA have unlimited resources and can draw out High Court proceedings for a long time while residents would be left unable to have their rights enforced. That is a problem. What I am trying to do with the amendment is provide for more ready and immediate financial penalties to strengthen the hand of the competent authority to enforce compliance. That is the theory behind it. The wording is poor because I was trying to cover many broad issues.

How do we put a cost on this? Manchester Airport imposes financial penalties. It has a clause under which it charges £750 for every decibel by which an aircraft exceeds the noise limit. I used a figure of €1,000 and did not even provide that this would apply for each additional decibel. As such, it is inadequate. That was one option that I had. Obviously, if we are talking about a major development and the DAA did not implement a measure costing hundreds of thousands of euro, a fine of €1,000 would be ridiculous. I accept that the amendment is not drafted properly. However, the principle of having some accessible, immediate financial or other penalties to bring the DAA to heel is necessary. I would like to know what the officials think. I will not press the amendment today but I want to discuss it in order that I can come back with something better.