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

I ask about amendment No. 100, which was in the range of amendments. What is the Minister's view on that amendment? His amendment No. 38 states that on the seventh anniversary of the date of commencement of this section and every five years after that there will be a review of the performance by the competent authority. Fianna Fáil, his partners in government, said that the first review should take place on the fifth anniversary. I have proposed that we should go for the third anniversary because three years would be a reasonable time in which to review the situation, given the tradition in this House of reviewing legislation. I mentioned some legislation on which we had a review. What is the Minister doing in that regard?

I notice that the Minister has failed to address the central argument that we have all made about the Commission for Aviation Regulation. He is ignoring the key issue and possibilities. He talks about a figure of 92% of income and so on, but clearly if a regulatory body was regulating a single company with a large chunk of its income coming from that particular area, it would place it in an invidious position. I am just saying that much for Fingal County Council.

The Minister also referred to An Bord Pleanála. A big section of the Bill deals with appeals, as the Minister rightly says. It is hard to envisage how it will work. If the CEO is the competent authority, he is also the planning officer; therefore, to whom does he talk? Does he talk to himself? Does he ask himself questions about whether a new large development at the airport should receive planning permission? Does he wait until he is finished dealing with the noise issue before he takes up that aspect? The Minister has not really gone into that matter or developed it.

I know that the tradition in the United Kingdom for a long time has been that it is the Civil Aviation Authority which regulates all airports. I know that people living around Heathrow Airport have had the debate about the third runway and been asking for a different kind of independent local authority, but there is no situation where the United Kingdom would have taken the local authority, whether it was the Kent or the greater London council, and given it that heavy responsibility. It went for a body which was one step back and that is what the Minister should do before he makes a bad mistake tonight.

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