Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge that it has been a difficult journey, not least for the Minister because he is in a very difficult position. The reality is that a previous Attorney General gave a diametrically opposed view on this issue to the one we currently have. Previously, we were told that the Irish Aviation Authority, IAA, was the best organisation for the job and that a statutory instrument was sufficient to bring it into law. Now we hear that there is a conflict of interest in the IAA and we need primary legislation. We welcome the fact that there will be primary legislation but one of the purposes of this discussion is to tell the Minister in no uncertain terms that he will never sell Fingal County Council as an independent competent authority on these issues and it is best that we address those issues now rather than wasting even more time in dealing with this in the future. Fingal Organised Residents United Movement, a community organisation that has been very vocal on this issue, has said that it wants to see Dublin Airport prosper and increased connectivity and has no wish to stop the development of the northern runway but it believes there needs to be a totally independent body. The problem with the Minister's response is that it does not stack up to analysis because an independent body within the IAA is not wholly unworkable. It already exists in terms of other areas like safety. There are two independent bodies operating under the umbrella of the IAA. It is entirely possible to set this up. The IAA does not benefit financially from planes landing at the airport. It mainly makes its profits from overflights so the conflict of interest is far less than it would be for Fingal County Council, which gets 20% of its rates from the DAA which has a disproportionate influence on development in that county and to which the council gave the go-ahead years ago without the conditions on night-time restricted flights, the retention of which is so important for the local community so that the airport can be a good neighbour.

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