Dáil debates

Tuesday, 26 March 2019

Aircraft Noise (Dublin Airport) Regulation Bill 2018: Report Stage (Resumed)

 

8:00 pm

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister's response failed to build additional confidence in his approach to the legislation. One need only ask if he would be the flag-carrier for this legislation if it affected people over in his constituency. It is unsatisfactory because of the arrangements around the authority which is to implement the regulation. That authority is hopelessly conflicted for all the reasons we know because it is also the planning authority for the entity running the airport. As Deputy Broughan said, that is unsatisfactory. The Minister has been unable to adduce any clear evidence that Fingal County Council as regulator will be sufficiently independent to act vigorously in the interest of residents who are affected. Currently, the whole area is undergoing a significant amount of building and there are new houses coming on stream in the vicinity of all the areas around the airport. They are getting closer and closer to the flight paths but no one is clear about where exactly and how exactly they will be affected. We are not regulating noise levels in this instance, as happens in other countries. As has happened in other countries, there is a huge level of technical skill available for an authority working in conjunction with the airport itself and local residents. Given the technological developments, it is possible to make significant improvements and reductions in the noise levels. The Minister is simply going through the motions in relation to the Bill rather than taking into account that where someone is badly affected by noise, it may end up not simply disturbing that person's peace of mind, it may deprive the person of sleep and negatively affect his or her whole life. We support the amendment proposed by Deputy Clare Daly because it is fundamentally a better approach than that of the Minister.

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