Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the speakers from the different parties. They were mainly in favour of the Bill, although the Labour Party indicated it had some reservations. It is clear the vast majority of those who live and work with people in rural Ireland understand this problem needs a solution. In fairness, the Minister of State and many of his colleagues have said that when I mentioned this to them. They understand this needs a solution, not in a year or two but now. We must bring it into practice now.

I thank my colleagues from Leitrim who came here this evening, Mr. Padraig Fallon and Mr. Séadhna Logan. I particularly thank Mr. Frank Davitt, a planner in north Leitrim who deals with this all the time. Earlier this evening we had a little presentation in the audiovisual room. He displayed a map of the country, indicating the areas where soil was heavier. Leitrim and the north west was particularly afflicted but we could see the problem in parts of Clare, Cork, Donegal and the Minister of State's own county. It is most acute in counties where the majority of the land has this problem, which is the case with Leitrim.

The Minister of State mentioned that he spoke with people in Leitrim and many of his party's councillors there, as well as others on the country council, and they have been trying to find a solution. Some of those solutions are very expensive because the effort has been to try to achieve zero discharge. When one tries to achieve zero discharge, one ends up with a system that will be extremely expensive as much of the expense goes into checking if there is zero discharge. We want to get away from zero discharge but allow discharge of a completely treated effluent that is to bathing water standard. It is clear that a licence can have that as a condition of the granting of the licence. The wastewater licence can then be a tool the Government can use to guarantee that water will be treated to the highest possible level.

The Minister went through a lot of stuff earlier and I know from experience that most ministerial speeches are written for and handed to them. Much of the stuff was irrelevant to what we are dealing with, which is a very specific matter. It concerns a case where a percolation test is failed and the EPA guidelines stipulate that planning permission cannot be granted. We want a solution where we can get planning granted where it is appropriate and meets all other conditions. It is about allowing people to get planning permission in order that they can live in a rural area. I know the Minister of State understands this but for some reason or another, a couple of officials in some Department or other seem to tell Ministers that we must find a way of blocking this because it will not look good to Europe. We have sent EPA guidelines to Europe and this does not conflict with those guidelines; it enhances them and provides a solution with which we can all work.

One-off housing has been mentioned, particularly whether people are for or against it. We cannot have an Animal Farmattitude to this that all one-off housing is good or bad. It is about where such housing is appropriate or it works. Such building must meet environmental needs and the needs of the community and society in general. It must work that way. People are blocking it because of an ideological fixation that one-off housing is bad but they must understand that this cannot be the case any more than all rural or urban dwelling is good or bad. A mix or balance is required and we must restore that balance.

I will give the Minister of State some examples. A few years ago, a couple from Dublin inherited a piece of land not that far from me. They approached me at the time because they inherited the land from a relative and they wanted planning permission to build. I imagine from speaking with them they were strong supporters of the Green Party as they had a vision of building an ecological house with a grass roof, with an organic garden of vegetables. They were going to have a magnificent lifestyle. They went to the council but could not get planning. They were told to go away as they were not allowed there. A few years later they had to sell the land and disappear. Those people were going to enhance the community but they were not granted planning permission.

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