Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Jacobs is most welcome. I appreciate that he has been here for quite some time so I promise I will not keep him for too long. I have been listening for the last 40 minutes or so as my diary allowed it. I am finding it very difficult to square the circle of the commentary, particularly that of my colleague, Senator Doherty, and most especially, Deputy Matthews, who is the Chair of the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government, which obviously has responsibility for planning. He put it to Mr. Jacobs that An Bord Pleanála ruled on a matter that Mr. Jacobs stated it had not and while it was not the substantive question, it has dealt with the question as a planning authority. The difficulty I have with the answer that has been provided to the committee, and the reason I came down from my office, is because unless the matter is appealed or changed via a planning application, it is not actually in dispute from a planning point of view. From an operations perspective and I would submit from Mr. Jacob's perspective that, of course, it is in dispute. However, the DAA still has a legal responsibility and a fiduciary responsibility to ensure that the airport is adhering to the planning conditions as they are set out as of today. We are dealing with mid-November. We are dealing with flight plans that were filed one year ago and, in some cases, in excess of one year ago relating to activity within Dublin Airport in 2023.