Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 April 2018
89. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport further to Parliamentary Question No. 243 of 28 March 2018, his views on the appropriateness of appointing Fingal County Council as the competent authority under EU 598/2014 with responsibility for airports outside Dublin; the bodies with which he consulted in this regard both nationally and at EU level; and the nature of this consultation. [17722/18]
View answerIn January of this year, I made a recommendation to Government that Fingal County Council be appointed as Competent Authority for the purpose of Regulation 589/14. The Government approved that recommendation.
As advised in response to Parliamentary Question No. 243 of 28 March 2018, EU Regulation 598/2014 only applies to airports with more than 50,000 civil aircraft movements per calendar year, and therefore in Ireland it only applies to Dublin Airport. The regulation does not apply to Cork or to Shannon, who both recorded traffic of under 20,000 for 2017.
As regards the consultations which took place, these were held entirely at official level between my Department, those Government Departments with a policy connection - environmental, planning and development - and their agencies, including obviously Fingal County Council. I am advised also that there was some official level engagement at EU level to understand how other Member States were progressing and there was contact with UK counterparts too, given the similarities in our regulatory, governance and legal structures.
On foot of all this, the Government has decided that Fingal County Council offers the best solution for Ireland, which is why I will be bringing a draft Bill to this House to provide for that.
