Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We are here late on a Wednesday evening and there are people in the Gallery who have made the journey in from St. Margaret's, Portmarnock, Swords and Malahide to listen to a debate on very important legislation. I have no problem whatsoever with Members coming in here to argue their point and make a serious argument in the direction in which they are intending to vote. However, what we have seen already tonight, and I hope we will not be wasting our time for the whole debate, is Members stand up and argue a particular position and then, at the vote, they sit on their hands. We might as well fold up our tents and go home if that is what we are going to witness for the rest of this debate tonight.

I have four amendments in this grouping, Nos. 2, 10, 14 and 49, which all propose to replace Fingal County Council with "CAR" - the Commission for Aviation Regulation. I am disappointed with the Minister. From parliamentary questions before the legislation was introduced, to Second Stage, to Committee Stage and on to Report Stage tonight, I had hoped the Minister would be listening. The Minister will say he is listening and he has listened to residents, but he has ignored residents and has ignored the views of Opposition Deputies, who are only making the points they are making because they genuinely feel he is doing the wrong thing.

Fingal County Council is not sufficiently independent. Apart from it being an economic partner of the DAA, apart from it receiving serious rates income from the DAA and apart from the conflict of interest that results from this, a further result of this legislation would be the need for Chinese walls so people do not talk to one another in Fingal County Council. It is absurd and it is unacceptable for residents.

Apart from the issues about finance and so on, there are two references we have dealt with before that I will deal with again tonight because it is important we lay it out. These are two references from EU Regulation No. 598/2014 and they demonstrate that the proposal to have Fingal County Council as the competent authority does not meet the independence test. Recital No. 13 of the regulation, which we are bringing into Irish law, states:

The competent authority responsible for adopting noise-related operating restrictions should be independent of any organisation involved in the airport’s operation, air transport or air navigation service provision, or representing the interests thereof and of the residents living in the vicinity of the airport. This should not be understood as requiring Member States to modify their administrative structures...

Article 3.2 provides that:

The competent authorities shall be independent of any organisation which could be affected by noise-related action. That independence may be achieved through a functional separation.

It could not be clearer. I talked at length on Second Stage about functional separation, which is a piece of EU jargon. The best-known example is the ESB, which is true functional separation. EirGrid is only concerned with the grid, Electric Ireland with sales and the ESB with generation. None of these three functionally separate entities has mixed or overlapping functions. In the case of Fingal County Council, however, the CEO of the council is to be given certain functions, which he is to perform without direction from the council. At the same time, he is to remain as CEO of the council and that will continue to be his day job.

The legal advice we have received is that if this Bill is enacted as proposed, there is a real risk of it being challenged before the European Court of Justice. The alternative we are proposing is that there should be an alternative competent authority. The Minister has definitely got it wrong. Although Deputy Broughan suggested the EPA as a possibility, we are united in our belief that the CAR is the best way forward. Fianna Fáil should come on board. We can achieve independence if we operate together and can achieve what the residents are rightly demanding.

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