Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to make reference to correspondence about which we heard yesterday evening and to the fact that at no stage did the Minister divulge or make reference to it. Is it not ironic that Fingal County Council had voiced the exact same concerns that many of us had voiced in respect of its capacity, its lack of in-house experience, and the fact that it determines planning applications and makes decisions? Many of us had raised all of those issues, including the issue of the potential for conflicts of interest arising from Dublin Airport being a source of revenue for the council. The reality is that the Minister made this decision in haste. I believe that is fair to say. He left it too late. All along he had been planning for the Irish Aviation Authority to be the competent authority. When he realised it was not permitted to carry out that function because it failed the independence test, he then rushed to Fingal County Council, completely ignoring the concerns it raised, the same concerns which many of us had raised. One has to ask again: how can Fingal County Council be truly independent in regulating an entity from which it receives an income? That income is quite substantial. The Minister may say that it is only 8% but 8% of a council's overall budget is pretty substantial.

The Minister has said that neither the Commission for Aviation Regulation nor Fingal County Council had the relevant expertise. If the Commission for Aviation Regulation is going to take on additional functions in the regulation of civil aviation, as we now know it will, would it not make perfect sense for it also to regulate noise?

It is not even surprising that the Minister did not flag the correspondence. The concerns Fingal County Council has aired are the same as the ones many of us have aired. It is disappointing but not surprising.

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