Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 5 November 2020

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

General Scheme of the Water Environment (Abstractions) Bill 2020: Discussion (Resumed)

Photo of Eoin Ó BroinEoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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On the question of resources not being an issue, on a number of occasions the EPA talked of the balance between that risk and the burden of administration and costs. If that burden of administration and costs was not what it currently is, would the EPA still be making the recommendations? When we ask the Department to tell us why it was going for 25 cu. m, 250 cu. m and 2,000 cu. m, in addition to referring back to the 1977 Act, it placed much emphasis on the recommendations from the EPA, which is absolutely appropriate. If the EPA did not have the current administrative and costs burdens, would it still be making the same recommendations on the thresholds?