Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Yes. Having worked on that development plan, one has a natural instinct to protect it. Councillors negotiate with management over countless hours of meetings. These meetings are a kind of sidebar to try to progress the development plan. Fingal County Council is responsible for the Dublin Airport local area plan, which is also a very important plan. Both officials and local councillors invest a great deal of time and effort in developing those plans. They therefore have a vested interest in both plans being successful. These plans may not be in the interests of the regulator, however, so there may be a conflict. That is why the EU directive is laid out in the manner it is. Fingal County Council saw these complex positions in its considered view at the very beginning. I believe the Minister will have to reconsider the section. It is wrong. By no means am I saying that Fingal County Council is incompetent. I am just saying it is wrong to put it in this position because it will have invested a massive amount of emotional energy, time and effort in getting the area plan and development plan right. It should not be put in the position of having to undermine those plans through its work as the noise regulator.

I ask the Minister to reconsider this amendment. In the normal course of events I would have withdrawn the amendment and asked the Minister to reconsider on Report Stage, but we cannot do that this evening. Within the time we have, I ask the Minister to think it through in order to see how complex it is and the position in which he is putting Fingal County Council. The community living around the airport sees the complex position in which the Minister is putting the council by asking it to be both the regulator and the planning authority.

It is a very different situation from that Senator Reilly wishes to portray. The reality is that local authorities invest time in drawing up development plans, local area plans and development plans for the airport. To then be made regulator after doing all those plans for the airport is a contradiction. It is laid out as a contradiction in European law. The Minister and I interpret clause 13 of the introduction to the regulation and Article 3(2) of the regulation differently, but I still think that these sections make it clear that what the Minister is proposing is not the right option. I ask the Minister to take a minute, to think about it, and to consider whether he would prepared to look at an amendment to this section.