Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I welcome everyone here today. It is very important that we are having this discussion. I acknowledge the work of Jim Hurley, who has been speaking about this issue for 40 years. He is looking in today and I want to acknowledge that.

I am very familiar with Lady's Island Lake. I am originally from Wexford town and I spent an awful lot of time there when I was much younger. We have had problems at Lady's Island Lake for more than 40 years. This is not something that just happened recently. It has been going on for a very long time. We have a large amount of data on the site. Studies, surveys and monitoring have gone on for this entire period. The work of Aquafact has lent to this and highlighted the issues. We know what the problems are and solutions have been identified. We now need to look at our next steps and how we move forward from here. Lady's Island Lake does not have that much longer. I do not know whether it is recoverable at this stage. It is a real shame if it is the case that we are at that point.

When I was down at Lady's Island recently I saw water being pumped into the lake. I rang the EPA with concerns about it. The EPA told me to speak to Wexford County Council. I rang Wexford County Council and was told to speak to Uisce Éireann. Uisce Éireann went down and looked at the site and said it was an issue for Wexford County Council. Then it came back and said no, it was an issue for Uisce Éireann. I contacted the Minister and asked what his responsibility was and I was told it was a LAWPRO issue. When everybody is responsible no one is responsible, and this is what we have here. This is the biggest problem. We need someone to put up their hand and say they will oversee management of this problem across government and portfolio and make sure there is funding. I hope the committee will make recommendations to the Minister. I would like to see this happen. Unless someone really stands responsible for this we will never solve the problem.

There are 56 farms at Lady's Island Lake, which to me is not a lot and it is not an insurmountable problem to support these farmers to manage what they are doing on the land so they are not impacting on the site. When I was there I saw a 5 ft pile of manure draining directly into Lady's Island Lake. I have questions about how farms are managing their slurry and nitrogen on site. My first question is for Wexford County Council. How many inspections has it carried out this year, and how many did it carry out last year and the year before, specifically on those farms in the catchment area of Lady's Island Lake?

The role of the NPWS is to designate the site and it is responsible for setting the conservation measures there. It is also responsible for reporting to the EU. Has it ever raised any flags or highlighted it with the EU or the Department to say that the site was in great danger and that there was no management of it whatsoever and to see what could happen? Unless someone starts taking responsibility for sites of ecological and national importance, we are going to see them die before our very eyes, which is what we are seeing here.