Gillian Toole (Meath East, Independent)

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit and I thank Deputy Smith as well for affording us the opportunity to discuss this issue. I acknowledge and put on record the willingness of the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, to meet resident groups and the North Runway Technical Group as recently as 18 June this year. Those meetings - any that I have been able to sit in at - have taken the thrust of always being solution-focused. I will try not to duplicate what colleagues have said already and I will edit my comments. Regarding the Bill specifically and the possibility of the transfer of functions from Fingal County Council and the Aircraft Noise Competent Authority to the EPA, I am a bit confused. As the Minister of State stated, from the correspondence of the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, the EPA was designated in 2006 as the national authority to include Fingal County Council, liaise with it and Dublin Airport Authority for noise mapping etc., and the EPA would give guidance to those bodies. Yet, I have email correspondence to a member of the North Runway Technical Group in the form of two replies from the EPA from August and September 2024 where the EPA states categorically that it has not been assigned any functions in relation to noise from aircraft and cannot assume responsibility for a particular area unless required by statute or by decision of the Government. That is pretty much repeated then in the correspondence of 14 August 2024. I would be one to say "Yes, absolutely" if there is a review coming. In or around September 2026 is what the Minister of State said was the time. However, we know more from a presentation from residents of St. Margaret's The Ward and of Meath East, including Ashbourne, Ratoath and the Wotton areas. They had a launch in Buswell's Hotel of a health impact study by Dr. Pat McCloughan. With a healthcare background, it is something to sit there, listen and see the figures. Some €800,000 per year is the estimated health impact cost on approximately 30,000 residents who are impacted. I can appreciate the attempt to get the balance between advancing the Bill and the pending statutory review after seven years in September 2026 but I would implore, based on the health impacts and the significant cost, a revision of that.

There is also another health impact that has come to light since Tuesday and that is the bird strike to an Aer Lingus aircraft that was headed for New York. There is a bird-rich compensatory habitat that Dublin Airport Authority owns in the area of Kilsallaghan. If we take that highly significant and potential, but thankfully averted, catastrophe, and include that in the mix, the whole issue of the flight paths that are deviating from the 2007 permission that was granted would add to the urgency and the need to take all of this in the round. As I said at the outset, the North Runway Technical Group, comprising commercial and private pilots, has provided a solution that will allow the growth in capacity, safeguard the residents and lessen - if not knock out altogether - the noise impact that is currently experienced. There is a win-win for all parties. I know the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is well aware but I urge the Minister of State, summer recess or not, to please take action on all of this. That is even without taking into account the regional opportunities. I made a submission to that effect to the national planning framework review some months ago. There are solutions here and we collectively must have a sense of urgency and action on this. I can understand the statutory review, the seven-year process and the September end, but when there are solutions there to provide a win-win for all parties I ask that we at least look at an earlier opportunity here. Regarding the noise monitoring, as it currently stands there are margins for error in the existing process. Residents, if they are impacted, monitor their complaints. They log their complaints with Dublin Airport Authority and then that information is gathered together and we have Lden figures and Lnight figures. That information is passed to the Aircraft Noise Competent Authority for reports, etc. We have had episodes in the area of Ratoath and Ashbourne, and I am sure it would have been experienced by residents in Fingal as well, where it was not possible to log a complaint and there were hours, even days, on occasion where the real-time complaints could not be logged by residents. As somebody with a background in science where evidence and data are so important, putting these extra stages in place is increasing margins of error. Given its role and its authority for all other types of pollution, noise pollution going to the EPA would seem to be an obvious one for me. As I said, I am between a rock and a hard place but given the health impacts, I urge for swifter action on this.

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