Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh na finnéithe. Faoi dheireadh, tá cothromaíocht inscne le feiceáil ag an mbord, comhghairdeas leis an Roinn. At last we have some gender equality here and it is welcome to see. It is the first time for me to see this after almost two years in the Oireachtas. I also offer my congratulations on the clear accounts, with the exception of the procurement account to which we might come back later. The Department covers such a broad range of areas. Climate change is obviously major. The Chairman might tell me when I am halfway through my allocated time because I want to start with some practical questions and then come back to climate change at the end. In its air quality report for 2016, the EPA confirms that the European Environment Agency, EEA, estimated that 1,510 premature deaths took place in Ireland in 2014 because of poor air quality. The EEA is obviously basing this on World Health Organization, WHO, standards, which are thankfully very high. We will come back to this.

My first question concerns details on landfill remediation given on page 21 of the accounts. Perhaps Mr. Griffin could clarify some things for me here on this remediation. The Estimate provision was substantial but the outturn was much less. There is also a note here stating the reason for the delay. The report also refers to a consultant's report. Can Mr. Griffin explain that to me? There was a delay because of a consultant's report and there was a delay because of complexity. How many remediation projects are we talking about in total? How many of those were delayed? I would appreciate it if Mr. Griffin could just give me the answers.