Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I want to say this as sensitively and as diplomatically as I can. There is an argument and a construct being put before us that somehow the rural Deputies are being set in conflict with the city Deputies. I utterly reject that on the basis of what has already been said. Despite the danger of repetition, I think it needs to be said again that there has been the deregulation of local authorities' role in the maintenance of our local environment. Despite the introduction of the property tax, which was fiercely resisted, the facilities, staffing and autonomy of the local authorities to carry out the role they are supposed to perform has been seriously undermined. Therefore, whether people are near Goleen or in Kilgarvan or in Ballyfermot or Crumlin, they will witness overgrowth, neglect and problems with the way our environment is ignored by local authorities that are underfunded and understaffed.

This Bill does exactly what we do not need. It introduces risks to our environment and to our already endangered species; it introduces a divide between rural and urban Ireland on a very false and obscene basis, to be honest, and it does so without consulting the people who have to live and work in these areas or indeed the scientists and naturalists who understand what is happening with the environment.

I am appealing to the Minister to scrap sections 7 and 8 and to open up a public consultation on these issues - one that unites the country and all people with an interest in a society that funds the maintenance of the public space in a proper way.

I must admire rural Deputies who are very eloquent in the way they tell stories. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae would have us listening to his lovely Kerry sing-song accent all night talking about the woman who nearly lost her eye-----

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