Dr. Mary Kelly:

I am coming to the quarries. I was trying to deal with the wind energy projects. On quarries, the Department has a function as defined in legislation. We have participated in many seminars and meetings on quarries under the aegis of the Department. We are in the process of organising an open day seminar for quarry proposers later this month. There is no mandate for us in the Acts to have a communications role and as a quasi-judicial body we must remain independent. We cannot tell people they will get permission if they do X, Y and Z when we know that third parties can come in and very often raise very important points which we must take into account at that stage. It is difficult to engage like that. The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government is really the body that is charged with developing the legislation and explaining that legislation to people including to us and we have participated in quite a number of those.

I am not aware of the case which is the subject of the Senator's last question. As I said at the beginning, I do not believe it is appropriate for me to comment on individual cases.