John Ellis (Fianna Fail)

We all know it happens in certain areas, but there are alternatives. The Environmental Protection Agency could set standards and allow people to deal with the matter themselves. The public does not want raw sewage in rivers because it knows the river may be one from which water is extracted for a local supply two miles downstream. It is all out of line. We have too many regulations from people unable to implement them.

There are plenty of opportunities to move a long way from where we are. The Minister was constructive about what he proposed and saw as the work carried out. Many simple things could be done. I want to mention environmental vandalism by people who drop their waste here, there and yonder at somebody's gate or across a farmer's hedge into a field. They are not entitled to sympathy when caught. In parts of my county people participating in community employment schemes pick up papers and bottles thrown along the side of the road. The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Ó Cuív, will introduce a new scheme under which this type of work should be allowed. I appeal to the unions that if such a proposal is put before them, they allow those in receipt of social welfare payments who will be given an opportunity to work on community employment schemes or their equivalent to do such work and clean up our environment. This is imperative.

Some have attacked the rural community and farmers, in particular, with regard to vandalism. They are the people least likely to engage in vandalism because they must look after their environment. Certain regulations have made life impossible for them, one of which involves a ban on the spreading of slurry at certain times of the year. Last year the ban was in place during the best weather there was for doing so. When it was legal to do so, it was pouring rain and all one was doing was washing it into streams and causing environmental damage. There is no one-fits-all system. I know the Minister was receptive when his colleague, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, asked him to extend the time during which it was legal. No farmer will spread slurry on wet ground when it is lashing rain knowing that it will be washed into watercourses.

I could go on to discuss many other issues-----