John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

It was not quite as straightforward as that. I am very familiar with this plant. I live very close to it. In fact, if Pigeon House Road is the starting point, I live on the same road. The problem is that both parties, Dublin City Council and the contractors, were blaming each other. The contractors were blaming Dublin City Council because in their own document they did not give adequate information and, likewise, we had criticism of the contractors. The net result was that the people we represent were caught in the middle and were faced with this dreadful odour.

It is correct that I invested money to deal with the problem. The odour problem has improved substantially on the basis of my own nose, but it returns intermittently.

Regarding the expansion, that is a matter for Dublin City Council. I understand the planning permission is extant and that it can go ahead and expand but on what contractual basis I cannot tell the Deputy at this stage because that is a matter for the local authority. I agree with the Deputy, however, that valuable lessons must be learned from what I can only describe as a debacle on the last occasion that should not be repeated and which, unfortunately, has given the whole idea a bad name to the extent that there are communities throughout the country that do not want a sewage treatment plant in their area.

I supported the idea, as did all the local representatives, of getting away from "NIMBYism" and having a sewage treatment plant that gives us a clean bay. That is one of the measures I supported.

An aspect I am very disturbed about is the fact that as a councillor and a local authority member I tabled an amendment which called for tertiary treatment and was supported by all of the council members at the time. This was a reserved function and despite that, and the fact that the plan was amended by the councillors, it was ignored by the management. In my view that is an affront to local democracy and completely unacceptable.

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