My response to Fingal County Council’s public consultation on aircraft noise is here. In it, I point out that

• there should be a general ban on night-time flights given the known health impacts of sleep disturbance by aircraft noise;
• the noise reduction objective needs to be based on analysis not just picked from an EU-wide strategy;
• Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) requires that alternatives such as a general night-time ban be considered;
• SEA also requires that the climate impact of the proposal and alternatives be considered, especially as night time aviation is generally much worse for the climate than daytime;
• Fingal County Council, including when it acts as an Aircraft Noise Competent Authority, is required by Irish law to pursue climate objectives.

The 5 Green Councillors have written to Minister Darragh O’Brien and Ministers of State Malcolm Noonan and Peter Burke asking them to bring forward changes to the Electoral Act to allow local authorities to restrict postering to designated sites.

The consultation draft of the Fingal Development Plan was agreed by Councillors this evening. The first draft was produced by the Chief Executive following initial input from the elected Council. Over the last few weeks, we considered a series of 917 motions to agree the draft for public display. The following are the motions submitted by the Green Councillors.