Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Are any other Deputies indicating? Everyone else is happy enough with it.

I will make a couple of points regarding the report from the Secretary General, Mr. Mark Griffin. I must say it is very comprehensive. A study is being carried out regarding the potential use of the Lough Ree and Shannonbridge power plants. The just transition commissioner, Mr. Kieran Mulvey, requested a study be undertaken, according to the correspondence from the Secretary General. It sets out that a feasibility study into the options for the future use of the existing infrastructure in west Offaly and Lough Ree has been undertaken over recent months. Members will remember and note those two power plants ceased operations earlier this year. The question, and the context in which I raised this with Mr. Griffin on the day he appeared before the committee, is that they are located strategically on the national grid in an area where large land banks are to be used for solar panels and sensitively located wind turbines. I stress the words "sensitively located". They are on fairly extensive sites which could be used for biomass or biogas. We note the group that has undertaken the work is expected to conclude shortly. I ask the clerk to the committee to request that we be kept abreast by the Department and the Secretary General, Mr. Griffin, of any progress. There is huge concern in the midlands that those two sites do not become land with plant rusting away on them. They are in a very strategic location on the grid to be brought into future use.

The other issue I wish to raise is regarding the CCTV cameras, which has been alluded to already. From speaking to local authorities and from having raised the issue with Mr. Griffin when the Department appeared before the committee, my understanding is that the legislation must be changed to facilitate the use of CCTV to try to counter illegal dumping, which is a problem in my constituency of Laois–Offaly. I am sure it is a problem in every other constituency throughout the country, and it is not getting better. Local authorities were using cameras, and it was possible to move them from one location to another. The Data Protection Commission intervened and said they must stop because there is a question mark over legislation and the legalities of all this, and legislation must be framed for it. I ask that we send a note to the Secretary General of the Department asking that the legislation be brought forward to the Dáil as soon as possible. It is a very real problem.