Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I ask that, in future, if any members miss their speaking slots, which can happen for very good reasons, we stick to the speaking order to be fair to everyone. I thank the witnesses for attending and for their contributions. I am taking three key points from this. First, we have a huge challenge on our hands and we are very far off where we need to be, while there is some good work going on. Secondly, there is a need for some sort of a structure, a centralised unit or some way of having strategic oversight and holding public bodies to account. The third point I am taking from this is that public participation is key. It is very important both in terms of people being actively involved in solutions and, critically, in terms of holding public bodies to account. We can see that in any other area where there is good public participation, it can really drive accountability and change. For that to work, from what I have seen in other areas, the key is that public participation is meaningful. Otherwise, people get disillusioned and disempowered over time. Key to it being meaningful is that it is backed up with strong accountability and enforcement mechanisms. Otherwise, people are raising issues and trying to participate, and eventually tail off if they feel there is not a meaningful way, when they spot things, of getting them addressed. I want to give one example of a local area and what it means. It is not an area in my constituency. The Ward River Valley Regional Park is a linear park south of Swords, and is a river basin area. Local activists in that area have been doing a huge amount of work voluntarily trying to clean it up and consistently raising issues on what they see as the failings and shortcomings of their local authority. They state, for example, that when the local authority brings outside agencies into river basin areas to carry out work, it fails to properly oversee that, which results in environmental damage and damage to the water courses. The local authority fails to enforce against regular users. For example, if sports clubs leave plastic litter on pitches, it gets mangled by the council when it comes along and cuts the grass, and that goes into the water courses. On biodiversity, the local activists say the local authority carried out works that are not in any way helpful, including using concrete-filled towers for flood defences, cutting away wild scrub, and putting down rat poison rather than cleaning out old dumped food waste, for example. There have been issues with old oil drums and car tyres sitting in the river basin for more than ten years. There are all these issues they have been raising for years and they feel they are not getting anywhere on this. I have a question for the representatives of the Water Forum. Is there any mechanism for local communities to hold to account public bodies, such as local authorities or others, that they feel are failing to implement their responsibilities under the river basin management plan? Is there recourse for them? If not, what is the Water Forum's view on changes that need to be made in terms of structures to be put in place to hold bodies to account?