Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I think the Minister of State's response justified tabling the question. Perhaps he might address the issue of whether he intends to establish a statutory authority. I am of the belief the OPW's authority in this area should increased. We do need a new body as the OPW is in situ. The Minister of State has described the current position correctly and it needs to change. As he said, the OPW is the lead State authority for co-ordination and chairs policy committees involving the different bodies involved. This is useful to know, but it does not have authority to carry out works because all of the other bodies mentioned by him have legal authority in different areas, particularly local authorities and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government but also the ESB, Bord Fáilte, Irish Water, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, Waterways Ireland and Met Éireann. Practically every Department mentioned by the Minister of State has a role to play. Nobody can have statutory authority if all of these bodies have separate statutory roles. Therefore, we need one organisation with statutory authority to deal with the issue.

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