Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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Question 177: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government when he intends to introduce laws, regulations and administrative decisions to comply with Directive 2002/49/EC of the European Parliament and Council that was agreed on 25 June 2002 and is required to be enacted into national law by 18 July 2004; and the legislative changes intended to be made in this regard. [13973/04]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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I intend to make regulations transposing Directive 2002/49/EC on the assessment and management of environmental noise into Irish law by 18 July 2004. My Department has been in discussions for some time with other relevant Departments, local authorities and transport bodies on the implementation of the main requirements of the directive. This includes the making of strategic noise maps by 30 June 2007 for agglomerations with more than 250,000 inhabitants and all major roads, railways and airports, and the drawing up of action plans to manage noise issues and effects by 18 July 2008. Dublin City Council has already made considerable progress on strategic noise mapping.

The protection of quiet areas is another concern of the directive. In 2003 the EPA published a report under the Environmental Research, Technological Development and Innovation Programme 2000-2006 entitled Environmental Quality Objectives: Noise in Quiet Areas.