Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am very sympathetic to the viewpoint expressed by my colleague, Deputy Clare Daly, in regard to the designation of the CAR as the competent authority. When I first reviewed this Bill I felt that a truly independent regulator would be the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA. As the Minister knows, the EPA already has a very strong role in regard to noise regulation and powers in regard to the licensing of organisations in regard to noise.

I reminded the Minister on Second Stage that when he was in Seanad Éireann, and in opposition in this House, he fulminated against weak regulators, against regulators that had been captured by companies that they were supposed to regulate, and against regulators who could not be independent in their function. However, the Minister comes to us here again tonight with this Bill on Report Stage, and is going to follow a course of action that will produce exactly that same impact. I live in Fingal and represent constituents in that area. I have a high regard for officials in Fingal County Council but the reality is that the organisation would simply be too heavily compromised. There is a very intense conflict of interest here which has to be recognised. The Minister reminded me, again on Second Stage, that 8% of Fingal County Council's total income comes directly from the DAA.

We have put a figure to the Minister, where residents of St. Margaret's and north County Dublin generally, said that the companies and ancillary businesses, logistics companies, hotels and all of the other businesses in the airport region who are such a fundamental part of the area amount to at least 20% of the area's business. If Fingal was a country rather than a county, a huge portion of its GDP would be provided by the airport.

A fundamental principle is being violated here. It goes against what the Minister said throughout most of his own political career regarding regulation, particularly financial regulation. Regulators have to be vigorously independent and not be totally captured by the companies they regulate.

There was also concern that Fingal County Council would have to raise the funding. Residents and constituents brought this to our attention. At present the resources of Fingal County Council, as revealed by a freedom of information request, are such that only three staff are involved in noise regulation: a principal health officer and two environmental health officers. However, they would be given a massive additional task. The Minister will say that the Bill proposes a series of levies which Fingal County Council would impose on the DAA in order to provide this function. That makes the point once more that the county council is too dependent on this organisation. Given the intertwined and dependent relationship between Fingal County Council and the DAA, it is impossible that the Minister should be embarking on this course of action.

I also mentioned in my Second Stage speech that a reasonable case had been made for the Commission for Aviation Regulation. I will support that proposal with colleagues with regard to the role of the CAR since the passing of the Aviation Regulation Act 2001. When one looks at Directive 598, it states that the competent authority responsible for adopting noise-related operating restrictions should be independent of any organisation involved in the airport's operation, air transport and air navigation services. There are a wide range of tasks that the CAR would have an interest in, and to which this responsibility would be added. I agree with colleagues in this regard.

When I first looked at this legislation I felt we needed a truly independent organisation. I felt that the Environmental Protection Agency, properly beefed up, would be able to fulfil that function. The key problem in this area is the fragmented nature of noise regulation. Deputy Clare Daly reminded us earlier of the 40 and 45 decibel levels which are in the World Health Organization guidelines, which I fully support and voted for with Deputy Coppinger. One of our problems is that we have this fragmentation of noise regulation. County councils like Fingal County Council, often with very small staff numbers, are asked to carry out a significant range of functions regarding noise, including noise from construction, commercial bodies, neighbourhood noise, barking dogs and so on. We have long-needed a consolidated Bill. In a previous Dáil, the former Deputy Cuffe of the Green Party brought forward such a Bill. The idea of such a Bill would ultimately have been to have a truly independent noise regulator. SI 178/1994 gave the EPA powers, linking it through the District Court process, in the whole area of noise. If one looks across other jurisdictions, like the United States or Sweden, it tends to be a broadly-based environmental agency that has this power.

I believe the Minister is on the wrong course in this regard. He is putting a duty on the county council which will leave it hopelessly compromised between discharging its duties to its own future financial and economic viability and its duties to the population, the 300,000 people of Fingal, especially the thousands who live on the flight paths, including in my own constituency in Dublin Bay North. The county council is being put into a hopelessly conflicted position. I urge the Minister to look again at this issue and to accept what most colleagues, and many of the airport's immediate neighbours, would like, namely, that the Commission for Aviation Regulation would be the regulator.

I wish to point out that amendment No. 100 concerns a three-year review of the Act. Other colleagues may have tabled amendments in that regard. We are used to three-year reviews. During discussion on the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill, we had a debate as to whether it would be five years or three years. On the Mental Health Act we had the same debate as to whether it was ten or five years. I urge the Minister that we could do this in order to do justice to the immediate neighbours of the airport and to us all. We could place the invigilation of Fingal County Council, if it gets through this process, under a review process after a maximum of three years.

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