Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There are many issues, some of which we will discuss. I remind the Minister that before he decided to appoint Fingal County Council - bear in mind that no other jurisdiction in Europe has done the same - the European Union wrote to him to state the key element in making the appointment was the independence of the authority. It recommended that he carefully ensure this independence beforehand because it could raise concerns at a later stage. I guarantee him that it will raise concerns.

Deputy Brendan Ryan is 100% correct. The process is under way, but the House has not yet voted on the Bill. Fingal County Council will be the competent authority if we pass the Bill and it is upheld in the Seanad. If we do not, it will not be. We are only in the middle of the process and the decision rests with Fianna Fáil.

The Minister's position on this group of amendments does not stand up to serious scrutiny and has not been substantiated. We are talking about circumstances where the competent authority or the appeals body has made a decision to introduce either noise mitigation measures or operating restrictions. All of the appeal processes are over and everybody accepts that the measure must be implemented. I am seeking to avoid any unnecessary delay. "Defer" is a negative and implies putting off. The justification the Minister gave for why he had to have what was a lead-in time, in layman's terms, was that he wanted to have a scenario where the specific date or the occurrences which would trigger it could be specified. They are all still there and my amendment does not change any of it. The only thing my amendment would change is the word "defer" to "authorise" for a lead-in time for the reasons stated in the notice. Instead of deferring the coming into effect, we would be authorising a lead-in time. All of the other justifications the Minister said the Attorney General gave him would still be in place. We have not sought to change them.

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