James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

While I agree with its spirit, again, I have queries about the letter of the amendment. I have seen the type of damage done to the environment and surrounding areas, to which the Deputy refers, be it in regard to mining, quarrying or landfill, with heavy goods activity or heavy engineering activity taking place at different locations. Very often, it is a case of "dig first and ask questions later" in terms of any kind of remediation or tidy-up. It has also been my experience that local authorities are not always best placed or best resourced to manage the remediation that is needed, and sometimes the ship has sailed when they come to try to pursue the operators. However, I have been advised that the amendment may be slightly difficult to implement because the Department, acting on the Minister's behalf, may not be best placed to understand the local scene in regard to what roads remediation is necessary. Perhaps there is an argument that the councils might be better placed to do this and perhaps the planning permission process is the right way to proceed. While I support the gist of the amendment, there may be a better way to achieve it.

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