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

I thank the Minister of State. I will conclude by taking the opportunity to revisit the conversation we had a little earlier in relation to Dublin Airport, as this is our last committee meeting scheduled before we presume the plug is pulled on the Thirty-third Dáil. It is necessary for me to commend the Minister of State's frankness in his remarks as to how we got here. As I have said in the past, often it is lost when we listen to the usual vested bellowing interests on our airwaves telling us that it is easy and that we can fix it like that, but we cannot because it is a legal and planning process that must be followed. We can revisit this issue. The committee has heard first hand from the Dublin Airport Authority. I attended a meeting in a private capacity, as it transpired, with the board of the DAA and heard there were constraints as to why it could not apply to change the planning conditions until recently. I am afraid that I cannot accept this assertion. I have eyes, I have a brain and I have access to add the sequence of events that have gotten us to the point we are at. Having met with all parties, with the exception of the airlines, which are subject to the case that culminated in an interim decision yesterday - as I will call it - by a member of the Judiciary, there is reputational damage to consider, although it was quite the correct decision by the regulator to curtail the operations of Dublin Airport for next year in order to adhere to the law of the land. It is another discussion, which I will come back to, that we have to comply with such a decision from 2007, but I am extremely frustrated. From reading what the Minister of State, Deputy Lawless, and what the Minister, Deputy Ryan, had to say it appears that we share the frustration that the reputational damage potentially caused by the sequence of events that led us to this decision being made, rightly, by the Irish Aviation Authority, IAA, and then ultimately it having to go to court because the airport operator failed to adequately address these issues in a timely manner. This was all coupled with - I hate to say - a very slow and long-winded process to get us to this point in what is an extremely complex area of flight paths and finding the least worst option, as I have phrased it in the past, so that it impacts the least number of people. This is interrelated to the overall conversation about airport expansion because, quite bluntly, one cannot expand Dublin Airport's operation with the current flight paths and particularly those that use the new north runway. I would encourage the Minister of State to sit in Kilcoskan National School or on the outskirts of Ashbourne and witness what it has been like for families and children experiencing that. I ask the Minister of State to bear in mind that these communities live next to an airport and they do expect aircraft noise.

They expect aircraft noise but they never expected aircraft flying directly over their heads because it was never envisaged as such. It is appropriate to reflect on that in our closing remarks.

The overall issue I will touch upon is the fact that this is a legal process. In response to Deputy O'Rourke's question, the Minister of State said that we now have a decision on this issue. That decision calls into question the legitimacy of a planning condition. I am not questioning the planning condition. It was made in good faith at the time but I do not think it applies any more. Maybe that is what the justice based his decision on. However, I am concerned that the courts can just set something aside, notwithstanding that it was likely the right decision, as I said. Again, I am not questioning the judicial decision. That is not our place in this House. I am concerned, from a general perspective, for instance, entertaining an international treaty, that it somehow trumps domestic planning law. That is a bit peculiar. How can the Department respond to this issue that has arisen and ensure that we are not here in six months, or in 12 months in particular, and a resolution to this issue can be found that can be reached as quickly as possible, notwithstanding the fact planning is in process? A decision is before Fingal County Council. How can we aid that local authority to expedite the decision, which will ultimately have an overall impact on the operations at Dublin Airport?