Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

I thank the Minister of State and the Acting Chairman for being here as well as our other colleagues, Deputy Ó Feargháil, Deputy Brian Stanley, Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan and my party colleagues, Deputy Kevin Humphreys, Deputy Pat Nulty and Deputy Ann Phelan for taking part in the debate on this legislation.

I brought forward the Bill to try to start a wider debate and to bring to the attention of colleagues in the House the lacunae and the significant gaps I have found in legislation in this area, especially in the case of crematoriums. My meetings with stakeholders brought home to me the difficulties. I could not believe there was no law for crematoriums. The Minister of State indicated he would keep the matter under review but this is an important and highly sensitive aspect of our lives and those of our families. Yet, there is no relevant law in this State. It is incumbent on the Minister of State, the Minister responsible, Deputy Phil Hogan, and our other colleagues in Government to bring forward legislation to address the matter, or simply to take the legislation in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland and implement it here.

Earlier I quoted extensively from the Forum on End of Life in Ireland, an outstanding body made up of all stakeholders in this area. Ms Angela Edghill of the forum contacted Members this morning by e-mail stating the forum is keen to see a wider holistic legislative response to the issues involved in this area since the funeral, cremation and embalming service industries are among the least regulated businesses in Ireland.

Since publishing the Bill in 2011 I have accepted the issues relating to section 3, which deals with the functions of a cremation regulatory authority. In my 20 years in the House as a member of the Labour Party I have invigilated hundreds of Bills including dozens dealing with the setting up of new bodies. I am well aware of the important sections which would require a vote relating to functions of any proposed body. The Minister of State indicated that the areas of sanctions and penalties and full administration are not addressed. I accept the point made about staff. I envisage a small staff of perhaps between four and six people and that stakeholders would be involved on the board. Section 3 needs to be expanded to include the invigilation of the funeral directors industry as well as the provision and maintenance of burial grounds and crematoriums.

Almost all of my colleagues have referred to the role of local authorities. I enjoyed being a member of Dublin City Council for many years and I continue to liaise closely with the city council and Fingal County Council, the two councils covering the area I represent in the Dáil. I have always believed in increasing the powers of councils. I envisage a continued role for councils because they are the effective owners of many burial grounds. As the Minister of State and others suggested, they have a role through their environment departments in maintaining historic burial grounds. The role of local authorities is paramount. I thought deeply about this when I was studying the establishment of an authority and I deliberated on whether the local authority route or reform of the Local Government Act were appropriate methodologies to address these matters. However, my experience of several recent applications has raised some issues. I made a submission on behalf of Dublin North-East and Dublin North constituents some weeks ago related to a major new private development which is directly on the flight path of and close to the main runway of Dublin Airport. At present the local authorities do not have the expertise or legislative clout to address adequately such proposals, especially in respect of long-term maintenance. I quoted Councillor Peter Coyle on this issue several times. One may produce a proposal but for graveyards, the most holy of places for our deceased, one must include plans for 40, 50 and 60 years into the future.

Some years ago I studied history at third level. I remember examining graveyards from the 17th century in Wexford, my ancestral county, parts of the midlands and other parts of Ireland. I was always struck by how carefully people from as far back as the 17th and 18th century tried to preserve these memorials in such a way that someone studying the area 200 years later could study adequately the history of their native place or surrounding districts. I envisage the local authorities being heavily involved even if we go down the route proposed, that is, through the Department or the HSE. One proposal involves a unit in one of these bodies to bring an overarching approach to the matter.

The Minister of State referred to the Public Health (Ireland) Act 1878. I learned from my colleague, Councillor Peter Coyle, that section 174 of the Act forbids the location of a cemetery less than 100 yards from a dwelling house. It is not possible to propose a cemetery within 100 yards of a dwelling house. This is the law as it stands. However, there is no such restriction on a crematorium. Let us consider urban crematoriums. Urban or town public representatives could be faced with a proposal for a crematorium close to residential accommodation. These are some of the proposals our councillor colleagues in the local authorities are trying to grapple with. I believe profoundly that we need a comprehensive licensing and legislation system for the sustainable operation and management of cemeteries and crematoriums. While researching the area I noticed there is a plethora of applications for cemeteries, for green graveyards and crematoriums throughout the country, including in South Tipperary, Wicklow and County Clare.

The Bill started life as an effort to bring in some rules. I was hoping the Minister responsible, Deputy Phil Hogan, would introduce a statutory instrument to the House to deal with the invigilation of crematoriums. Between 12% to 15% of people who die in the country are cremated. I referred to comparable statistics in other jurisdictions throughout the world. All the indications are that the numbers will increase here. At present any private operator can set up a crematorium once they have general planning permission.

The Minister of State referred to EPA approval. Air quality emissions is one of the key issues that has not been addressed and that the local authorities find difficult to address. The Forum on End of Life in Ireland has stated that annual emissions of mercury from dental fillings in crematoriums in the European Union are between two and five tonnes. The UK Federation Of Burial and Cremation Authorities estimates that approximately 16% of all UK mercury emissions are from crematoriums. This figure may rise to 25% by 2020.

One of our most important cemeteries, Mount Jermone cemetery in Harold's Cross, has installed a new filtration system and a new crematory furnace. The staff have indicated that they are now compliant with the latest EU environmental legislation. Mount Jermone cemetery is home to 250,000 of our predecessors. Between it and Glasnevin, some 1.5 million people who lived in this city and region over centuries have their final resting place.

My colleagues and I have stressed the importance of the long-term maintenance of graveyards. I have several examples in my constituency of Dublin North-East which relate specifically to drainage issues. These are Balgriffin, a major cemetery in the heart of my constituency run by Fingal County Council; Dardistown, which forms part of the Glasnevin Trust; and the very historic cemetery at St. Mary's Abbey in Howth. A former Labour Party councillor, Ms Anne Carter, raised the major flooding and drainage problems at Balgriffin and Dardistown on several occasions in Dublin City Council. Again, there did not seem to be any prescription in regard to drainage, which is just as vital as air emissions in cemeteries. Relatives of deceased persons buried at Balgriffin have been very upset to see new graves completely waterlogged as a result of flooding of the nearby river. These drainage issues have not been dealt with either by Fingal County Council or the Glasnevin Trust. Before Christmas last year bad weather led to major flooding on the Howth Peninsula, resulting in a whole section of the graveyard at St. Mary's Abbey being washed down and several coffins of recently deceased persons being opened due to the disturbance of the earth. Fingal County Council is doing very important work in restoring the walls and graves. These three examples from my constituency show that local authorities must be given stronger powers in this area or else consideration should be given to establishing an overarching authority.

An issue I did not have time to address in my opening statement is the assessment of future burial needs. The current economic crisis has placed a question mark over the ambitious predictions for the State's population growth in the coming decades. Unfortunately, the equivalent number of people in a full Croke Park on all-Ireland day left the country last year, despite the Government's best efforts to address the crisis. The recent census figures showed that half of the approximately 78,000 people who left our shores last year were native Irish people. As such, the projections for a population of 6 million plus by the end of the decade commencing in 2020 may not come to fruition. We must all hope the Government will be successful in addressing the macroeconomic situation, notwithstanding my opposition to some of its policies, and that the population will continue to rise. In that context, there is great concern among communities, particularly in the greater Dublin area but also in towns throughout the country, that it will be increasingly difficult for bereaved families to access a burial plot at a reasonable distance from their home. Sligo County Council prepared a very interesting burial ground policy for the period from 2006 to 2010, something which all local authorities, if they have not done so already, should replicate. Sligo County Council's survey in 2005 showed that in ten key burial grounds in the county, space was either limited or non-existent. Part of the work of a regulatory authority such as the one I have proposed in the Bill would be to plan for future needs in an holistic way across the State.

My Labour Party colleagues, Deputies Robert Dowds and Eamonn Maloney, and others referred to the increasing cost of burial plots and charges for the opening of graves, as recently covered in the media. For instance, South Dublin County Council recently hiked the cost of plots from €1,200 to €1,800, while prices are also to rise in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. Deputy Dowds highlighted the incredible prices being charged in some Dublin cemeteries, with one Dublin family paying €6,000 for a plot in Palmerstown. Cremation with an urn now costs between €596 and €626 at Glasnevin, with such fees formerly generally running at approximately €500. The cost of cremation and being placed in a column-bearing wall is now €1,296. This is another area in which administrative oversight could be assumed by a burial regulatory authority. I mentioned in my opening contribution that the Forum on End of Life in Ireland is anxious that all undertakers and funeral directors be subject to a full licensing and training programme, as their own association has recommended. While we all acknowledge the great work done by firms throughout the country, all such operators should be subject to national legislation. I accept the point made by the Minister of State in this regard.

I take the opportunity to refer briefly to green cemeteries and associated new technologies, to which Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan referred. A recent proposal for a green cemetery in County Galway referred to minimal development being necessary because the green infrastructure was already in place. However, that is not really acceptable in the long term. I have in mind the new graveyard on Mount Leinster, for example, in which several people I knew have been laid to rest. This, too, requires long-term care and maintenance. In the case of the various new developments such as promession and other chemical disposal methods involving liquid nitrogen and so on, as the author of a recent article in The Economist observed, all such new technologies require associated legal frameworks.

Reference was made to a burial regulatory authority being just another quango. I dislike quangos as much as anybody else, but the Minister of State might have noticed that what is proposed in the Bill is based on the Property Services Regulatory Authority. Under previous Administrations, I consistently urged the former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, to introduce such a body. The Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter, finally signed the relevant order in recent days and the authority is being established. However, the horse has already bolted. Action was not taken when it was needed most, in 2003 or 2004. I acknowledge that this was directly and absolutely the fault of Fianna Fáil in government. However, it now falls to the Minister of State to take on board the issues I am seeking to address by way of this legislation. He has said he will keep the matter under review. I hope the Department will examine these proposals and the points made by colleagues and come forward with a plan to legislate. We are available for discussion.

These Friday sessions have been very valuable in facilitating Members to bring forward useful legislative proposals. I contributed to the debate on Deputy Mattie McGrath's Bill some weeks ago. It would be helpful if Departments engaged to a greater degree with Deputies in bringing forward Private Members' Bills by identifying the gaps in the legislation and suggesting how it could be made better by the insertion of X, Y or Z. Such co-operation would help to make Bills more Dáil-proof. Having Friday sittings is a great innovation and the Government deserves to be commended for their introduction.

On the issue at hand, I reiterate that all of the stakeholders, particularly the Forum on End of Life in Ireland, the Glasnevin Trust and other operators, impressed on me the urgent requirement for legislation on cemeteries and crematoria. I urge the Minister of State to ask the Minister, Deputy Phil Hogan, to examine our proposals.

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