Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate my colleague, Deputy Martin Kenny, on his innovation in bringing this Bill forward, which I wholeheartedly support. I reject the amendment and I will speak to it in a moment. I acknowledge the presence in the Public Gallery of the person who is probably most qualified to speak about this matter, namely, Mr. Francis Davitt, a planner from north County Leitrim. He is only too aware of the difficulties with policy as it stands and the opportunities that exist to reach the target set by the Government of 75% of future growth outside Dublin. Councillors Séadhna Logan and Padraig Fallon are also present. I am sure that, through their constituency work, they have come across families who have been prevented from realising their dream - and their right - to be able to build in their local area because of the interpretation of the rules as they stand and the lack of flexibility in those rules which means that technological solutions cannot be embraced.

Fianna Fáil was in government for a long time. I have been around these Houses for a long time as well so I recognise that the amendment tabled by the Government as the usual three-card trick, backed up by officials. For Private Members' legislation, Ministers give sponsoring Deputies a superficial pat on the back while the legislation is kicked down the road, never to be seen again. The reality is that the policies the Minister speaks of, including Project Ireland 2040 and the idea of 75% of future development outside Dublin, are all very well, but, here and now, people are actually living in County Leitrim. That might sound strange to some people, who prefer to see the west of Ireland as somewhere they can go for weekends or on holidays when the weather is good and expect to see Peig Sayers looking out over a half-door, smoking a pipe and drinking a pint of Guinness. The Minister should know that we have had running water there for some time. I assure him that there are also people and communities there. County Leitrim is the worst affected area, but as Deputy Scanlon and others have pointed out, the problem persists in Donegal, Sligo, west Cavan and parts of Roscommon.

The Minister is pursuing policies but, while talking the talk and sounding great in many ways, the policies are contradicted by their scheduling. The Government wants to kick the problem down the road so that the rural water review group can investigate it. It promises that there will be a new revised code of practice for the EPA. These are things that might happen at some time in the future. Why would the tail wag the dog? We are supporting this legislation, which means it will proceed to Committee Stage. My advice to the Minister is that he should contact the rural water review group and the EPA and tell them that the Parliament has passed legislation on Second Stage and that they should redouble their efforts and prioritise it. We want this Bill to proceed to Committee Stage in the short term, in acknowledgement of the fact that people do live in the north west, that young families want to build houses on their family land and that young farmers want to build houses so that they can cater to the small farms they own.

One of the real ironies is that we are promoting the very real necessity to protect our environment and address the challenges of climate change. We heard earlier about the 8 million tonnes of plastic that end up in our oceans each year. I can confidently tell the Minister that not one ounce of that comes from County Leitrim. Perhaps we owe it to the people of County Leitrim to introduce some measures to support their living there. There is a small coastline in Leitrim, and I assure the Minister that not one ounce of the plastic in our oceans can be attributed to the families who have been living there for many generations. The children of those families are entitled to live there too. The other irony is that while we want to maintain the health of our water table, which is admirable - Deputies Martin Kenny and Scanlon, among others, have supported that ambition - at the same time we are quite happy to promote the fact that over 50% of agricultural land in Leitrim is populated by an invasive species. I realise that we want to reach a target of 17% for forestry but that the current figure in this regard is only 11%. I support that, but there are 35 million Sitka spruce trees now in place in County Leitrim. Furthermore, due to airborne fertilisation, we have phosphorus, nitrogen and cypermethrin pollution, all of which are threatening the water table. They are also threatening traditional methods of farming. On the one hand, we are shoving the entire target for forestry down Leitrim's throat while, on the other, we are saying "Live horse and get grass". In approximately 150 years' time, when the "gin and tonic belt" is looked after, perhaps we will throw the odd bone of placation to the people of counties Leitrim, Sligo, Donegal and north Roscommon.

I advise the Minister that this Bill will pass Second Stage. I appeal to him, as the proactive individual I know him to be, to lift the phone and contact the EPA and the rural water review group and tell them that the Government, which is supposed to run the country, has passed this legislation and needs, by 1 January next, a revised code of conduct from the former and a report from the latter by in order that this policy can become law and in the interests of the people of the north west.

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