Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputy McGrath for introducing this Bill and I acknowledge the contributions thereon. The Bill deals with a very serious issue that is arising in both rural and urban areas. It is very important that we discuss it. We need to address the ease with which items of monetary and sentimental value can be traded without regulation. That our rail network can be interfered with, creating the potential for very serious health and safety problems, is very serious. Interference with communication lines must stop and there needs to be regulation in this regard. I welcome the update from the Minister on progress on these issues and I hope there will be further progress.

The trade in scrap metal is very lucrative. Recently in my community, the GAA raised approximately €15,000 within a couple of hours when everybody in the community brought their scrap metal to the sports field for collection. An elderly member of the community referred to this as being akin to being in Coventry during the Second World War when there were scrap metal collections for the war effort. The collection in my community raised an enormous amount of money for a sports club. We need to ensure that these efforts will not be jeopardised by future legislation.

I agree with the comments made by Deputy Joe McHugh on the possibility of retrieving copper cables from the seabed around our coastline. There is potential to raise considerable revenue through this endeavour. This has been mentioned in Kerry. Off Valentia, apparently, there is some very valuable copper cabling. Perhaps it is possible for a public private partnership to engage in business in this area.

Perhaps it is possible for there to be a full audit of Departments and local authorities that may have considerable reserves of scrap metal of which they may be unaware and which could generate considerable revenue. This is worth considering. Every means of generating or saving a euro at present is worth considering. When one considers that metal worth €15,000 was collected over the space of a couple of hours, one should note that there must be considerable reserves of scrap metal that could be collected by the public sector and local authorities. Perhaps the revenue from it could fund vital services at local authority level, such as playgrounds and others services in respect of which funding is desperately required.

I thank Deputy McGrath for the effort he has made. It is very important that we are here discussing this matter.

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