Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I accept the logic of the comments Deputy O'Brien has just made on the insulation scheme and the role of DAA, but they still do not sufficiently address the big problem with the Bill, which, even at this late stage, we should repeat. I refer to the fact that the regulator, the competent authority, is hopelessly conflicted. I am reading comments sent in to us by constituents in Dublin Fingal and Dublin Bay North. The reality is that we have a local authority deriving at least a quarter of its revenue, its rates, from the airport zone, yet we are still creating a situation in which the independence we need in an independent regulator is not there.

Reference has been made to An Bord Pleanála, but over the past year or so we have become used to An Bord Pleanála rushing all kinds of major developments, such as huge construct-to-rent schemes, through the planning process, which does not really give us confidence about this Bill. There is no question but that this legislation will be revisited in respect of the provisions relating to the competent authority. I will state for the final time that I cannot see what was the logic of not appointing the Environmental Protection Agency, which under the 2006 European noise directive is designated as our competent national noise authority. Why the Minister did not do so beggars belief. We have read out the correspondence from the Fingal County Council executives, who just felt they did not have the resources to carry this out. Deputy Darragh O'Brien is Tadhg an dá thaobh here, speaking out of both sides of his mouth, both to the locality and nationally. The reality is that we do not have an independent competent authority and that we will have to return to this, certainly in the next Dáil.

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