Airport Noise Laws in November – Ross

Legislation allowing the removal of noise restrictions for the new runway at Dublin Airport will be introduced in Dáil in November, an Oireachtas committee learned.

The Authority of Dublin Airport (DAA) has obtained clearance for the northern runway of 320 million euros in 2007, but the construction has not started because of the economic slowdown and the decline in the number of pbadengers. Last year, a five-year extension was granted to allow the construction of the runway by 2022.

One of the conditions of the authorization caps the number of Flights to and from the airport between 11 pm and 7 am to 65 pm. works, to protect local residents from excessive noise.

However, since then, new EU rules have been introduced obliging the state to appoint a noise regulator that will determine the appropriate noise controls for the airport.

These rules "replace" the original planning conditions, said Minister of Transport Shane Ross at the committee, but primary legislation is needed to formally establish the regulator and amend the planning consent. noise regulator.

million. Ross had the intention of appointing the safety oversight body last year, the Irish Aviation Authority, as the noise regulatory body, until the end of the year. to advise the Attorney General that the agency may not have been sufficiently independent to badume this role. We received legal advice that required us to seek another authority, "Ross told the committee." We did not expect that to happen, you can not guess the Attorney General. "

Fianna Fáil TD Robert Troy said that there had been excessive delays in the presentation of the legislation that had left the DAA with a very tight deadline to build the new track.

"This is not the first time you set a calendar. For 18 months you have told me several times in the Dáil that it was IAA [who would be the regulator]. How can we trust that what you tell us will be delivered? "

Mr. Troy was" absolutely right "that there had been a delay," said Mr. Ross.

"I had provided for an earlier schedule for legislation," he said. he says, but he added that he was confident that the runway would be built within the time stipulated in the building permit.

"I expect the Airport Noise Bill to pbad. 39, here at the end of the year, followed by a formal regulatory process and a regulatory decision by December 2020, "he said with the estimate. from the construction of the runway by March 2021. "

The regulatory body would decide the appropriate balance between" the interests of the nation, the rights of the airport authority and the rights of residents. "The incoming president of the DAA, Basil Geoghegan, said last month that the airport could lose up to three million dollars. ers if the noise restrictions attached to the initial building permission were not removed, before the development of the new track.