Martin Brady (Dublin North East, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to address the House on this Bill and to outline the Government's policy in this area. Environmental noise has many sources, from large scale activity such as industrial installations, traffic on urban roads and major construction sites to more local sources such as security alarms, social activity and general neighbourhood noise.

I received a complaint in my constituency last week from a person with a neighbour who raises hens and cocks. The cocks start crowing about 10 p.m. each night and continue until 6 a.m. The daughter of the person who complained is a nurse who must go to work at 7 o'clock each morning having been unable to sleep all night with the noise. This is just one example of noise pollution.

Let me give another example. In Dublin where I am based some people make their living from driving refrigerated articulated trucks. These people live on housing estates and have no place to park their trucks when they drive from Cork, or wherever, apart from outside their houses in their housing estate. They leave the refrigeration unit turned on all night because the containers contain perishable goods and the resulting noise keeps their elderly neighbours and others awake all night. Sometimes gardaí or local authorities are called to deal with the issue, but they have no powers to deal with it and do not want to know in most cases.

The other side of the coin is that the truck drivers in question need to make a living. Local authorities are provided with significant funding by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and therefore, there is an onus on them to make provision for truck drivers to park their trucks in special compounds. This is something that must be considered.

House alarms are also a cause of noise pollution and I am glad to see the Bill makes provisions in this regard. House alarms in housing estates might be ringing for 24 hours, but nobody, not even the next door neighbour takes any notice. All the alarm does is upset everybody in the area.

We all know environmental noise is a symptom of our active and busy lifestyle. We have something of a catch-22 situation. We all need some quiet time to rest and recharge our batteries, but the pace of family life and social activity makes this difficult to achieve. Often, social activities are likely to commence after midnight. For example, one may live next door to a house that is rented, which is common in Dublin. Someone in that house may come home from the pub, get a carry-out from the off-licence and decide to have a barbecue at that late hour. That will go on till 6 a.m. although the next door neighbour may have to get up and go to work in the morning despite not being able to sleep because of the disturbance. When that neighbour manages to get to work, he or she is flaked out.

I congratulate the Green Party on this Bill. We are green on this side of the House also and know what is involved with regard to noise pollution.

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