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

I come back to what the Minister said about the independence of Fingal County Council because he mentioned that it gets 8% of revenue. There is a lot going on at Dublin Airport. There is the new runway and more revenue will be coming in for Fingal County Council, so there is a vested interest for Fingal in terms of taking on board this job. People want to see independence. They want to see that there is someone neutral in place looking after their interests and not one that is benefiting from whatever new facilities or otherwise come into the airport. That is important, and the Minister should not dismiss it just on that basis.

The Commission for Aviation Regulation, CAR, has been mentioned. A number of people have said that is an appropriate group to do this. Fingal County Council would need extra staff, so if CAR needed extra staff, there is no reason it cannot get them to do such an important job.

I have been dealing with Fingal County Council over the years in terms of noise pollution from the M50 and Turnapin Lane where they put up barriers and so on. We are talking about a major task and the residents have a good case in saying that an independent group should do this.

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