Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 3:

In page 14, to delete line 5 and substitute the following:

""groundwater" means all water below the land surface that is not in a pipe or similarly contained;".

I promised on Committee Stage to revisit the definition of "groundwater" on Report Stage. Deputy Gilmore mentioned on Committee Stage that the ambiguity in the wording of the existing definition could result in water below the land surface — in water pipes and swimming pools, for example — being regarded as ground water. He made the clear point that the legislation did not have such an intention. The definition of "groundwater" is intended to apply solely to water in a free state that seeps down through the subsoil from the surface above, including aquifers. The revised definition clarifies explicitly that the prescribed interpretation is not intended to apply to water in pipes or any artificial container. Therefore, I think it deals with the issue that was discussed at some length on Committee Stage.

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