Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 268: To ask the Minister for Transport further to Parliamentary Question No. 240 of 28 April 2009 and bearing in mind the principle of legality, if he will confirm whether it was his Department or Dublin County Council who undertook the act formally establishing the red zones in the vicinity of Dublin Airport in 1968; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24784/09]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy is aware in 1968 the then Department of Transport and Power, communicated to Dublin County Council in the case of Dublin Airport a scheme showing restrictions on developments considered necessary in the vicinity of the airport to provide for aircraft and public safety.

In notifying Dublin County Council of the area in which the Department was of the opinion that planning should be restricted the Department was merely advising Dublin County Council that development should be restricted on the grounds that it would either infringe the safety standards contained in the Chicago Convention or would constitute an unacceptable risk to the safety of people or property on the ground. The Department of Transport did not then, and does not now have the power to compel planning authorities to apply its recommendations or advice in relation to red zones.

This was an input into the planning process. The legal justification for any subsequent action is a matter for the relevant local authority.