Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Walsh who is both concise and well educated on this issue. I was not aware that there was legislation and rules in place governing this. The key issue here is to raise awareness of how dangerous these chemicals are and Mr. Walsh outlined that very well. His commonsense approach, which we do not hear too often in this House, sits well. There is no way glyphosates should be used in housing estates or anywhere that there is footfall, including playgrounds and so on. Mr. Walsh is right about that.

I agree that warnings should be displayed wherever these chemicals are being sold. Again, this is about providing information because I genuinely do not believe most people would be aware that they are breaking the law. I spray my plants at home but I use a mixture of white wine vinegar, salt and washing up liquid. That is an alternative and by God, it works. I am very interested to hear Mr. Walsh's view on how we can raise awareness of the dangers of using these substances and also of the fact that there is a law in place which means that people who use them in public places are actually breaking the law.

This is a massive health and safety concern. In terms of an alternative for the biological and cultural control of weeds, what would Mr. Walsh recommend? Specifically on Japanese knotweed, herbicides are injected into the stem and the roots but is there an alternative approach? Would it be useful for this committee to write to all of the local authorities to raise awareness? Should we embark on an awareness-raising campaign using Mr. Walsh's ideas and recommendations?

My main questions are how we work on raising awareness, what the alternatives are for playgrounds, how we enforce the rules and whether there is an alternative for Japanese knotweed.