John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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85.To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment what Ireland’s responsibilities are concerning noise pollution, specifically motorway noise pollution, and more specifically the M50 residential corridor; how our laws compare to EU and UK best practice; and whether he plans significant noise amelioration measures along busy residential motorway corridors.[34103/24]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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My Department is responsible for national policy on environmental noise. The European Communities (Environmental Noise) Regulations 2018 (which transpose Directive 2002/49/EC on the assessment and management of environmental noise, as amended by Directive (EU) 2015/996) requires Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and local authorities to undertake strategic noise mapping every five years for all major roads to identify and prioritise hotspots which will require further assessment and may require mitigation measures to be put in place. Once strategic noise maps have been produced, the results are used by each local authority to develop Noise Action Plans as required by the Environmental Noise Regulations with supervisory oversight from the Environmental Protection Agency and the noise-mapping body for the noise-map involved.

The Department of Transport have responsibility for overall policy and securing exchequer funding in relation to the National Roads Programme. Under the Roads Acts 1993-2015 and in line with the National Development Plan (NDP), the planning, design and construction, including noise mitigation measures, for individual national roads is a matter for TII, in conjunction with the local authorities concerned.