Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The focus of this legislation is to bring EU Regulation 598/2014 into Irish law. On Committee Stage, on a range of issues, the Minister responded to proposed amendments on the basis of WHO guidelines by saying that cannot be done because there is quite a specific purpose in this legislation. When we sought to change the definition of a balanced approach, the Minister came up with a similar response and said he had been advised by his legal advisers that this is quite specific and cannot be done. Yet, in this section, it appears miscellaneous matters are okay provided they are designed to achieve a particular objective, which has been clearly defined by the DAA in terms of its intent. It would be unfortunate if the starting point for this legislation was to assist the DAA in rowing back on what has been hard fought for and hard won at An Bord Pleanála on behalf of the residents. It was always open to the DAA to go back under the old legislation to An Bord Pleanála to seek to have these matters reversed. It is unfortunate that the Minister is facilitating this in the legislation.

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