Air and Road Safety.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 February 2006

Tuesday, 14 February 2006

Ceisteanna (387, 388)

Pat Breen

Ceist:

439 Mr. P. Breen asked the Minister for Transport, further to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 481 of 16 December 2003 and 419 of 3 February 2004 which confirmed respectively that whereas 466 pedestrian fatalities occurred on roads here for each of the years 1998 to 2002 no third party fatalities arose from aircraft crashes here during the very same period, if the €421,000 expended on the ERM report relating to purported public safety in the vicinity of airports here was a waste of taxpayers’ moneys and that such scarce moneys would have been far better used for example on road safety measures relating to pedestrian safety or even employing more driver testers to help reduce the massive numbers of drivers with provisional licences on roads here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5394/06]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Transport (Mr. Cullen)

The Government is fully committed to both road and aviation safety. Reducing the number of road fatalities and injuries continues to be a top priority for the Government and for my Department. Aviation, meanwhile, if it is to continue its excellent safety record so far, must maintain pace with the latest developments in safety practices worldwide. For that reason, the use of consultants such as ERM, is entirely appropriate.

Pat Breen

Ceist:

440 Mr. P. Breen asked the Minister for Transport the background, commencement date and overall nature of the arrangement between his Department and the owners of a company (details supplied) in County Dublin that permitted the development of this massive complex, all of which is both directly under the busiest aircraft flight path here and, most critically, within the red safety area of runway 10/28; his views on whether the facilitation of such activities over the years by his Department is totally at odds with both the various safety edicts issued and numerous objections raised to various other lesser developments in the vicinity of Dublin Airport by his Department, Aer Rianta and the Irish Aviation Authority; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5395/06]

Minister for Transport (Mr. Cullen)

I understand that the ALSAA sports complex at Dublin Airport was developed by a trust comprising Aer Rianta and Aer Lingus employees at the time and not by Aer Rianta. The complex was granted planning permission by the relevant local authority and, when it was constructed in the mid-1980s, was located fully outside the red zone of the approach to the then future runway 28L. Following subsequent detailed design and construction of the runway, there resulted a minimal incursion into the zone of one corner of the constructed building. I am assured that this was not at variance with safety or planning policy at the time.

In January 2005 the Government approved the environmental resources management report on public safety zones at Cork, Dublin and Shannon Airports. The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is currently preparing guidelines to be issued to the appropriate local authorities regarding the public safety zones at those three State airports.

The development concerned and all such developments in the vicinity of airports are a matter for the local planning authority and, ultimately, An Bord Pleanála. I am not in a position to comment on the actions of the then Aer Rianta or the IAA, or on their objections, or the absence thereof, to particular developments.