Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I am not surprised that the Deputy, a member of the Fine Gael Party who brought in the legislation, does not know what is in the legislation they introduced. It delegated specific authority. We agreed in Ireland to a regional approach to the implementation of the hierarchy of integrated waste management plans. I am glad to say that in spite of the bleating from the Fine Gael and Labour parties on this issue, these plans are being put in place and what is involved is quite clear in the public domain.

I said I would give a national overview of all the plan, so that we could have a clear picture nationally about what is happening. We will be able to identify how advanced each region is under the key headings of reducing, recycling facilities, composting facilities, major waste stations and all the issues involved. That will show the progressive regions. The proposals on thermal treatment, residual landfill and so on will be quite clear from the plan, which was agreed by the Oireachtas. The rainbow Government of which the Deputy's party was a member led the debate in 1996 on the waste management structure that we are implementing because we thought it a wise approach and supported what the rainbow Government did in 1996.

The plans are quite clear; there is nothing secretive about them. We know what is required in term of termal treatment, residual land fill and recycling facilities and these are going in at quite a pace, as the Deputy knows. I was in Cork last week and was delighted to see the 'pay for weight' system in operation. I would advise anybody in the media who is interested in seeing how these things work to look at the extraordinary technology involved. The back-up computerisation system in the lorry is such that each householder can be told what is happening.

The public knows about the plans and what is happening in their regional area. That is the basis of going forward. The Deputy and the Fine Gael Party, in spite of having introduced the legislation, seem to ignore the facts and pretend that nothing is in place, while the public is getting on with solving the crisis of waste.

See this speech in context