Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Broughan's amendment specifies that "[t]he competent authority shall direct the airport authority to ensure that average noise exposure is in accordance with WHO guidelines, as applicable".

Many people watching this debate will have heard a lot about WHO guidelines without necessarily understanding what they are and what they mean. I will return to some of the specifics but it might be helpful if I read the foreword of those recommendations as they are relevant to people's thinking about what ought to be. Dr. Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO regional director for Europe, wrote that "noise is one of the most important environmental risks to health and continues to be a growing concern among policy-makers and the public alike." I have my doubts about that in relation to policy makers in this country, but it is certainly of concern to the public in Ireland. Dr. Jakab continued:

Based on the assessment threshold specified in the environmental noise directive of the European Union, EU, at least 100 million people in the EU are affected by road traffic noise, and in western Europe alone at least 1.6 million healthy years of life are lost as a result of road traffic noise.

At the request of Member States at the Fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health in Parma, Italy, in March 2010, the WHO Regional Office for Europe has developed these guidelines, based on the growing understanding of the health impacts of exposure to environmental noise. They provide robust public health advice, which is essential to drive policy action that will protect communities from the adverse effects of noise.

These WHO guidelines - the first of their kind globally - provide recommendations for protecting human health from exposure to environmental noise originating from various sources. They not only offer robust public health advice but also serve as a solid basis for future updates, given the growing recognition of the problem and the rapid advances in research on the health impacts of noise. The comprehensive process of developing the guidelines has followed a rigorous methodology; their recommendations are based on systematic reviews of evidence that consider more health outcomes of noise exposure than ever before. Through their potential to influence urban, transport and energy policies, these guidelines contribute to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and support WHO’s vision of creating resilient communities and supportive environments in the European region.

Following the publication of WHO’s community noise guidelines in 1999 and night noise guidelines for Europe in 2009, these latest guidelines represent the next evolutionary step, taking advantage of the growing diversity and quality standards in this research domain. Comprehensive and robust, and underpinned by evidence, they will serve as a sound basis for action.

While these guidelines focus on the WHO European Region and provide policy guidance to Member States [of which we are one] that is compatible with the noise indicators used in the EU's Environmental Noise Directive [ it is compatible with the noise directive that the Minister referenced at previous discussions on this], they still have global relevance. Indeed, a large body of the evidence underpinning the recommendations was derived not only from noise effect studies in Europe but also from research in other parts of the world – mainly in Asia, Australia and the United States of America [we are talking about best practice here].

I am proud to present these guidelines as another leading example of the normative work undertaken in our Region in the area of environment and health. On behalf of the WHO Regional Office for Europe and our European Centre for Environment and Health in Bonn, Germany, which coordinated the development of the guidelines, I would like to express my gratitude to the large network of experts, partners, colleagues and consultants who have contributed to this excellent publication. I would also like to thank Switzerland and Germany for providing financial support to this complex project, and look forward to following the influence of the guidelines on policy and research in the years to come.

This is a reference to this body of work we have all being referring to in 2018, we are passing legislation in 2019 and it has got to feature. It would be remiss of us to let this legislation pass without reference to the WHO guidelines.

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