Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister said that Fingal County Council came round to the view and that it did not really need much persuading but we do not know whether it needed any persuading at all because the record does not show evidence of any meetings whatsoever. There are no minutes or records of contact but what the record does show is that subsequent to the Minister's decision to appoint Fingal County Council as the competent authority, his senior officials wrote to the council and asked some very basic questions around conflict of interest. After the decision was made and the Attorney General's view was sought, we know that departmental officials were in contact with the local authority looking for more information. This means that they did not have that information when the decision was made.

To return to the point made by Deputy Broughan, the Minister is setting himself up for an absolute hiding in terms of this legislation because of the conflict of interest. It is a conflict of interest that he was warned about by senior officials in the European Parliament in terms of how this should be advanced. I repeat that we are the only member state that has chosen to appoint a local authority as the competent authority in this way. This is a very serious situation.

In terms of the amendments that we are currently considering, the Minister is absolutely right that the competent authority is being brought in and this regulation is to improve the lives of residents in dealing with noise impact. If current measures which are in place in that regard are not sufficiently protecting residents, then the competent authority is being lawfully authorised in this legislation to order improvements. Taking out these two clauses is not going to prohibit, for example, the competent authority from looking at the operation of the new runway and deciding that 66 flights per night is too much and that it is going to cut the number down to zero, or whatever the case may be. That will not be impacted upon by these amendments. The only reason these two clauses are in the legislation is to allow the competent authority to reduce the protections that are already in place for residents. That is all they do and that is going against the spirit of this Bill and against everything we are supposed to be here to deliver. It is a betrayal of the residents who fought long and hard against that planning application in the first place. The route is still open to the DAA to apply for a new planning condition. It can come in at any time and submit a new planning application and have the issues evaluated. If my two amendments are passed, that will not change. The only thing my amendments will do is stop the DAA from going in immediately and undermining the existing conditions. It is absolutely true to say that I do not know if the competent authority will actually approve it or not. I do not know that but given that under this legislation Fingal County Council is the competent authority, it does not bode well. We would be better off fulfilling our responsibility and taking these two clauses out.

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