Naoise Ó Muirí (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)

Regarding the county council, every committee member has raised the issue of who owns this problem. It is incredible. The local authority is happy to take a mandate to deal with it. It will be great if it can get a mandate to lead on it, but it is incredible that no agency is obliged to deal with this problem. It is an enormous water body. This is not just with regard to Wexford. Throughout the country, water bodies are large ecological systems and no one State agency seems to lead their management or restoration. It is beyond belief. I am happy that Wexford County Council has indicated it is willing to lead on this but priming this, taking the lead and making it happen are very important.

There has been a total failure of leadership at State agency level for more than 40 years, and I mean "State agency" in its broadest definition. If Wexford County Council will be the leader on this, that is great but it will have to pull everybody together. I agree with the NPWS that funding is not an issue. Funding will be secondary. We will all work as members of the committee to try to deal with any issue. We are coming from a position where nobody seems to have owned this issue or owned up or decided to take it on. No public agency has done so for approximately 40 years. It is incredible. I welcome Wexford County Council saying it will do this but that is predicated on it working well with the other agencies that are here and those that are not here, including the EPA. Everyone will have to work together. I am not really asking a question; I just want to know that everyone is on board.