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

I am not a member of the transport committee so I did not get a chance to follow this debate but I sought to do something similar with amendment No. 45. The Minister spoke to me about this earlier, I think. I refer to the references to SI 549 and the fact that the statutory instrument is the Irish enactment of Directive 2002/49/EC. I think the concern constituents have is that the statutory instrument would take precedence over the EU directive. This is more or less what I think my colleagues are referring to. If the EU intends to change Directive 2002/49/EC to take account of the WHO guidelines, which is what we all want to see, will we then have to issue a new statutory instrument? Will we be left behind in this regard? I think the Minister refers to this in amendment No. 78 as well. There is concern that there is not explicit reference to SI 549 of 2018. The Minister has locked us into this until it is replaced by a future statutory instrument to take account of changes to Directive 2002/49/EC. If there are those changes enforcing WHO guidelines, are we in fact being left out because we are not including the latest revision of Directive 2002/49/EC? We have all had emails, and this is a concern I have heard from residents and my constituents in Dublin Bay North. How does the Minister explain this? Is there a lacuna here? Are we leaving residents and everyone on the flight path in the lurch in this regard?

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