Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 9, after line 41, to insert the following:"(4) One Director of the Agency shall be an expert in radiological protection.".

Before dealing with the amendment, I join the Acting Chairman in congratulating the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, on the meteoric, if circuitous, route he has taken to his current exalted position. Many of us here soldiered with him in the past and remember him as a very good and forthright Senator. I hope he will bring these qualities to his ministerial position. He has gone via the Seanad, the European Parliament and the Dáil, was appointed Minister of State and now Minister and is also deputy leader of the Labour Party. I wish him well in his challenging role. I pay tribute to him, too, as a representative of a rural constituency. He did a very good job in his previous role, as Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, particularly on the issue of rural transport. He was very knowledgeable and impactive in ensuring the rural transport system was preserved and protected. I hope he will display the same sense of independent thinking today as he has done in the past in this House. As he will know from his time in the Seanad, it is easy to distinguish between Ministers. Some of them are too often caught looking over their shoulders to receive instructions from behind their seat. Others, however, have the courage and incisiveness to differentiate between good amendments and those which are not so good and take the appropriate action in either accepting or rejecting them.
I also take the opportunity to pay tribute to the outgoing Minister of State, Deputy Fergus O'Dowd, who was in the House last week. Many of us had an expectation that he might well be promoted in the reshuffle. To see him returned to the backbenches is a surprise to many. He is a person who distinguished himself in his time as Minister of State and I wish him well in his future political career. He marked me at one time when I was Government spokesman on communications, energy and natural resources and he was my Opposition counterpart in this House.
Amendments Nos. 1 and 2 arise from our discussion on Committee Stage. The Bill serves to merge - some of us might use the word "submerge" - the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland, RPII, within the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, two bodies which were heretofore independent. To some extent, these proposals fly in the face of international trends, whereby radiological protection schemes operate independently of other bodies. The EPA has a very distinctive function in that it is there to protect the environment from human activities and degradation. The modern lifestyles we enjoy have been injurious to the environment. The function of the RPII, meanwhile, is to protect individuals from the effects of nuclear fallout and harmful radon gas. The institute has had a distinguished record in the past 25 years and is internationally recognised for the good work it has done in advising and instructing the Government on a range of radiological issues. It is important that this is not lost in the merging of the two bodies.
The EPA has been engaged in four core activities, each of which is overseen by a director. This legislation will add a very distinguishable fifth area of activity and a fifth director. I am grateful to the previous Minister and his officials for giving me a note on the background to this. The four activities are environmental enforcement, climate licensing research and resource use, environmental assessment, and communications and corporate services. The directors in each of these divisions work with the director general of the EPA. It is very much an executive board.

I know that in a few minutes the Minister will probably say that he intends the radiological protection division to be headed by a director with expertise in the radiological sphere. In this instance we are anxious to ensure that it does because, in fact, the Bill is silent on the matter. Section 21 says that the agency will consist of a director general and five other directors. We could presume that one of those posts will be a director for radiological protection, but that could change. The note says this will ensure that the radiological protection expertise can be - and I emphasise the word "can" - a criterion for the selection of directors. The section also allows the Minister to direct, by order, that a director must have specific radiological protection or other qualifications. By way of a corollary, we could interpret that to mean that the Minister may not make such a direction by order. The legislation gives the Minister an optional discretionary power. We are saying that in the merging of the two bodies, particularly a body as important as the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland, primary legislation should underpin the post of a director with appropriate expertise in the area. The Bill does not say that at present. The Minister may say that was implied, but it would be open to any Minister, or director general, to influence the decision and, therefore, the appointment might not happen, which would lead to the diminution of the role of the radiological protection objective within the new body, a move which we think is unwise.

I presume the Minister will repeat the assurance we were given on the last day that the person involved will have the necessary expertise and will or may be a director. If that is the case then I see no impediment to the Minister's agreeing to specific legislation. That is why I am happy to propose that one director of the agency shall be an expert in radiological protection, which combines the objectives sought in sections 21 to 23, inclusive. I urge the Minister to think independently in this regard and accept this simple amendment.