Dan Boyle (Green Party)

I concur with Senator O'Toole on the need for real consensus in the current political climate. To be fair to this House, there have been many contributions on the Order of Business in recent months predicated along similar lines. Part of the consensus would be that, regardless of the individual approaches adopted, there would be an acceptance that no policy option could be followed that would not be difficult or unpopular. Until there is such an acceptance, anyone involved in political life is not only fooling himself or herself but he or she is also fooling the people he or she claims to represent.

My party leader has proposed a Green Party initiative. The letter he has sent is on Green Party headed notepaper and was shown to the Taoiseach who has accepted the general principles. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is waiting for a reaction from the Opposition parties and I hope it will be positive. Without a positive reaction, we will have put into reverse the necessary measures that need to be taken in advance of the four year strategy, the budget in December and going back to the capital markets in January. If we do not have consensus on the issue, not only will the business of Government be made more difficult for the Government, it will also be made nearly impossible for any Government that would take office following a general election. I ask Members to consider this most strongly.

I request a debate in the presence of either the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government or the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources on the need for a review of safety procedures in the light of the ecological disaster in Hungary and how such an occurrence might be avoided in this country. There are a number of tailing ponds attached to mining facilities and a major aluminium plant, Aughinish Alumina, in Askeaton. The disaster in Hungary has concentrated a lot of minds. It would be helpful to know that the Government is considering matters critically to ensure such an event does not happen in this country.