Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)

I am glad to support the Green Party's Noise Bill. Noise is defined as any unwanted sound which is a nuisance, would endanger human health, damage property or harm the environment. In my experience, there are two or three noise-related matters which I would like to see resolved, but they cannot be dealt with due to the lack of adequate control mechanisms. The first matter concerns blasts from quarries. I have come across several cases involving damage to houses caused by such blasts, but nothing can be done due to faulty monitoring and inadequate legislation. People have been frightened out of their lives by quarry blasting which has caused cracks in their houses. Such explosions are supposed to be conducted under the auspices of local authorities but the regulations have not been properly enforced.

Second, rock breaking continues around the clock in quarries but while people have adequate remedies in that regard, local authorities are not doing their job. I have come across a number of such instances.

Third, major noise pollution is occurring in a pristine, 400-acre footprint in Bellanaboy, County Mayo. The sound of pile-driving there is certainly an unwanted nuisance. It creates a terrible racket in an area where before now the only noise came from the twittering of birds or the howl of the wind through the glen. Those sounds were much more welcome than the current nuisance going on in that area. I would like to see the passage of legislation, such as the Noise Bill, to put an end to that pile-driving work, which is very unwelcome. Those 400 acres will be taken over as the Government wishes, and as Fine Gael would also wish.

See this speech in context