Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I am reminding myself of the response from the Secretary General of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Brendan Gleeson. It touches on what we talked about earlier. He speaks about pesticide use in public areas and the current situation. I note that he states that if a product authorised for professional use is intended to be used, it can be applied only by a Department-registered professional user. Going back to the non-chemical products, Mr. Walsh might be able to assist in that regard because of his experience. Senator Murphy is correct that Mr. Walsh obviously has a real grá for and an interest in the topic. It would be good to identify a number of non-chemical products that could be recommended to the Department. Ultimately, if the Department takes the lead on this, the local authorities will follow. The Department goes on to state in its response that there is best practice in responsible pesticide use in public areas. That is a guidance document the Department produces. That is one point.

The second point is that the reply goes on to state that there is currently a robust EU legal framework for placing on the market the use of pesticides and that the EU is responding to the concerns of member states in a more harmonised approach to deliver fully on the ambitions of sustainable use of pesticides. In tandem with what the Department is doing, the committee, on foot of Mr. Walsh's petition, should correspond with the Department, not only about the inspections but also about whether it is trialling non-chemical products and whether it recommends them on its list for professional contractors. That might also assist because it is in line with Mr. Walsh's recommendations to the committee. One point is about the warning signs, and that is fine. Maybe an information campaign could be good, particularly around April and May every year, as the growing season comes on. Mr. Walsh said all city and county councils should adopt the same policy. I agree with him on that. He is right that if it works in one area, it should work in them all. The problem, however, going back to the Chairman's point, is manpower. We can have all the machines we want but we need people to drive them regularly. Mr. Walsh's experience in Holland is fine if they have the crews to go out regularly, but we find there are long stretches of road that do not get the attention they need and people give out about them. As I said earlier, there is a balance to be struck here. We have to be cognisant of biodiversity as well. We cannot kill everything that is growing that we do not like the look of. That is not good either.

To Mr. Walsh's third point about the non-chemical alternatives, that is where he can assist, as well as the committee corresponding with the Department, to try to recommend more non-chemical-based products. Let us see whether the Department is trialling them - we do not know - and how many inspections are being undertaken. Then, when we get the response, we might engage again with Mr. Walsh.