Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)

I wish the Minister well in his new position. I support the position taken by my colleague, Deputy Stanley, on this Bill. While I agree with the polluter pays principle, it should not be applied disproportionately. A fee of 70 cent is an excessive amount to charge for plastic bags and it will hit working people at a time when they cannot afford any more costs. We need to start thinking of a new approach which shifts the burden away from ordinary people and on to those who produce the waste.

It is ironic that we are discussing this Bill on the day when the Government was given three months to clean up the site at Haulbowline. Ireland has the highest number of court cases in the EU on environmental issues. I welcome the European Commission decision to place a three-month time limit on the Government to begin the clean-up of the toxic waste site at Haulbowline. I salute the hard work of all those who campaigned for this decision over the past ten years, and particularly the voluntary groups from Cobh who took the case to the EU petitions committee and worked closely with their local authorities and councillors in the area.

While I acknowledge and welcome the positive role that the Fine Gael MEP, Seán Kelly, has played in the EU decision, it now comes downs to whether his party in government will do the right thing and clean up the site or if it will follow the example of Fianna Fáil and the Green Party by denying and ignoring the problem. Fine Gael and the Labour Party have been vocal in the recent past in condemning Fianna Fáil and the Green Party for their failure to conduct a study of what was buried in Haulbowline and the Cork Harbour area. Cobh remains a cancer blackspot and this probably will not change after the Haulbowline site is cleaned up. The demand for a baseline study will not go away until it is granted and the time for half measures is past. The Fine Gael-Labour Party Government must fulfil the promises made before the election by offering the citizens of the communities of Cobh the protection and quality of life they deserve.

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