Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses and the committee members for this slot. I will probably have another opportunity to talk to the EPA at the climate action committee about the new legislation on packaging, etc. However, today, I would like to raise a few issues, the first of which relates to noise and noise complaints. This is a frequent issue that constituents raise with us as public representatives. I wonder about the EPA's interaction with local authorities about the level - no pun intended - of noise complaints. Have they increased substantially over the last number of years? How does that fit in?

Senator Garvey spoke about inland waterways, water pollution in general, foul water discharge and misconnections. In an urban area such as Dún Laoghaire, there is a large number of misconnections in small waterways. The witnesses might not have the information today, but they might correspond with the committee on the percentage of misconnections in urban areas, as it is an issue.

Dr. Minihan mentioned Irish Water and its plans. Sea or bathing water quality is an important issue. As the EPA knows, Irish Water has plans to try to deal with some of the treatment plans. The water quality in Dublin Bay at times is not sufficient. I wonder how the EPA can work with Irish Water on that.