Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The WHO has made it clear that the second most significant environmental cause of ill health is noise levels. It also says that there are 10,000 cases of premature deaths in Europe as a result and almost 20 million adults are affected. It also says that 8 million people suffer sleep disturbance. That, in itself, tells us the seriousness of the problem in dealing with noise.

I am not sure what the Minister is saying he will introduce to address this. It is important that he spells out clearly to us what he intends to do because there are many things that residents are affected by. I pass by the protest in St. Margaret's and I go through Swords a couple of times a week. The residents in those areas are badly affected and we have to spell out to them what we are going to do to lessen the noise. We have to show them how we are going to deal with it.

The Minister stated that he will not accept any of these amendments but he should clearly spell out what he is going to do. He should not just say that he is going to do something. It is not clear to us and it is important that he spells out what he is going to do.

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