Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is a substantial part of the Bill and health has been a considerable part of the discussions that we have had during the passage of this legislation. We have to be honest that the directive provides for consideration to be given to health implications. Nobody on this side of the House has ever denied that that is the case. It is provided for and there are references to the 2018 guidelines and so on. However, we have to be cognisant that there is a significant trust issue. Spelling it out is necessary in the context of some other decisions that the Minister has taken.

Sadly, those are decisions such as the one taken last week to appoint Fingal County Council as the competent authority. People believe that their interests are jeopardised by that decision. Their confidence is not strengthened by the reports that they read in the media during the week of the release of communications between the director of services and planning in Fingal County Council with the Minister and his Department, spelling out to the Minister that they did not feel they were best-placed for the gig. We made the point here that Fingal County Council did not want it but the director of planning there was in communication with the Minister's Department last November, after his decision to appoint the council as the authority, and she stated: "[We have] an extensive remit in both shaping and determining the strategic direction of Dublin Airport through its land-use planning and associated functions." She said that the council was also responsible for determining applications for planning purposes. She stated: "In light of the existing complex and varied role that Fingal County Council plays as outlined above, it is considered that the council may not be best placed to act as the competent authority." She said that the council does not have the requisite competencies available in areas of aviation operations, noise and economic feasibility assessments. She suggested that other bodies would be better for the job. We found out that it will have to contract in specialist services to monitor noise at an approximate cost of €1 million per year, in a council €200 million in debt, with no idea where the money to fund this regulation will come from other than the reference to collecting a levy from the DAA, an organisation which has similarly borrowed hundreds of millions to fund the next runway. Taking all of that into account, one can understand and realise that those who will do the monitoring will be private consultants who are outside the scope of freedom of information and Oireachtas scrutiny. It is then pretty understandable why residents would be concerned and would say that they need to be sure to have a reference relating to health, because past performance does not give much confidence.

While I fully accept, and it is totally true and I have no problem in saying it, that health is referenced in the directive it is a directive brought in to mitigate the dangers of noise and by implication to benefit human health. The hazards of noise and its implications in early deaths, sleep disruption and heart and cancer issues - all of the research on its impact - mean we have to have a robust system in place. If the only reason these amendments cannot be included, and they have not been ruled out of order so they are obviously valid, is that we do not need them because it is already covered I have no problem supporting them to give that extra layer of assurance. I have tabled an amendment specifying that the World Health Organization, WHO, decibel guidelines should be the denominator for the competent authority. That also will protect human health because the guidelines as set out by the WHO are based on scientific research, best medical practice of the health implications. We need to have that quantified. There is merit in it. That is why it needs to be included.

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