Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 505: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government further to the confirmation by the Minister for Transport by way of reply to Parliamentary Question No. 358 of 7 February 2006 that there have been no aircraft accidents whatsoever or associated third party fatalities in any of the red zones at any of the State airports since their introduction in 1968, the rationale for the replacement of such massive red zones with the proposed but even larger public safety zones at the State airports; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7902/06]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I am advised that it has been the practice since 1968 to limit development in areas known as "red zones" around the three State airports of Dublin, Cork and Shannon, for reasons both of air navigation safety and public safety. In 2000, my Department and the Department of Transport jointly commissioned Environment Resource Management to review the specific issue of addressing public safety on the ground around the major airports, based on current scientific practice. In assessing this matter, ERM used recent advances in risk modelling techniques which made it possible to quantify the risks to the public on the ground from aircraft crashes.

The recommendations of ERM were that the use of the "red zones" should be discontinued for public safety purposes. Public safety zones should instead be introduced, of a different size and shape to "red zones", and should have varying levels or development restrictions within them, depending on what type of development is proposed at different points. It will be important for example to be able to restrict building heights near runways to ensure that obstacle clearance surfaces for departing and arriving aircraft are maintained, in line with the State's obligations under the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation of 1944. Public safety zones would also be designed to protect the public on the ground from the small but real possibility that an aircraft might crash in a populated area and to ensure, as far as possible, that there are not large concentrations of people continually in the areas most at risk from crashes.

In January 2005, the Government approved the drawing up of guidelines by my Department to be issued to planning authorities, based on ERM's report. Draft guidelines are being finalised in my Department and will be issued for public consultation shortly.