Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

This matter is far more serious than the Taoiseach realises. Does the Taoiseach appreciate that the position of the EPA is compromised, in light of the pronouncements of its director, Dr. Mary Kelly, in favour of incineration, as well as the appointment to its board of Ms Laura Burke, who is a former employee of Indaver Ireland, which is the company seeking an incinerator licence? In that context, how can the Taoiseach stand over his comment that the EPA is independent? The EPA is judge and jury in its own court, in effect, and will not be subject to any appeals system.

There is an onus on the Government to accept its responsibility to govern, for example by learning from the lessons which should have been learnt by now, ten years after the establishment of the EPA. Is the Taoiseach aware that it seems to the public that every polluter appears to have the ear of the Government? Is that because money talks, or because medical experts and environmental groups do not have the resources of the company that is proposing the incinerator? Will the Taoiseach review the operations of the EPA to try to restore some of Ireland's lost credibility as a clean and green food island? Will he ensure that the EPA is concerned with environmental protection, rather than simply with licensing industrial pollution?

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