Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate and I remind Deputy Brendan Ryan that this EU regulation was introduced in June 2014 when his party was in government. That Government had 18 months in which to implement this measure. It could have implemented it and appointed any authority it wished if it had acted in those 18 months. Since becoming Fianna Fáil spokesperson in 2016, I have continuously raised this issue. We were told for 18 solid months that the IAA would be appointed the competent authority. It was only at the end of 2017 that the Minister said it was no longer legally feasible to do so and he would appoint a different competent authority, namely, Fingal County Council.

The Minister says he is simply implementing the EU directive, which means he is restricted in what he can do. The one thing he can do is make a decision on which body should be the competent authority. I have serious reservations about appointing Fingal County Council as the competent authority and have said the proposal to do so is out of sync with what other European countries are doing. The Minister has failed to share any of the Attorney General's advice or any of the legal advice he has received. I have worked in committee for several months with him and his officials to try to improve the Bill and ensure it would provide independence. That is why we put forward the amendment providing for a director of the competent authority on a par with the CEO. The Minister said that is not workable and if we pushed the proposal, the Bill would fall. I ask him to contradict me if I am wrong, but I believe the reason he cannot do that is that civil servants are looking after themselves. They do not want to change the status quoin local government. That is the only reason they are not willing to accept our amendment.

Let us be honest. There is an urgent need for this legislation. The directive was put in place in 2014 and it is now 2019. We need an authority in place to give certainty, not only to the residents but also to the Dublin Airport Authority, DAA.

Some of the previous speakers argued that Fingal County Council would be compromised because the DAA pays rates to the council. If that was the case, every local authority would be compromised in every decision it ever made. Local authorities would grant planning permissions willy-nilly to benefit from development levies and commercial rates. We are not saying that, however. Deputy Coppinger used the example of Aer Rianta and then said there was nothing wrong with that decision. One would wonder why she would use an example and then say there was nothing wrong with that decision.

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