John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is a general response beyond the first couple of paragraphs. None of this policy matters and none of what the Department does as guardian of the wildlife and natural habitats of Ireland matters if a local authority drives a coach and four through it by dumping on and landfilling what had become a natural habitat and wildlife area. If the Minister cannot address this, some other Minister must do it. The local authority must be asked how communication broke down to such an extent that one arm of the local authority did not know what the other arm of the authority had done, culminating in what is essentially the vandalisation of a natural habitat.

Does a local authority require a licence from the EPA to dump silt and soil in particular spots? This happens widely in Ireland. Constituents have raised with me the provision of play spaces in the Dodder Valley and there are concerns that the biodiversity impact on one of those play spaces was not taken seriously by the local authority with respect to the Part 8 submission. The ESB, which is the apparent jewel in the crown of semi-State bodies, has not responded publicly in any meaningful way to its pollution of the River Dodder. An "RTÉ Investigates" documentary covered that.

The Minister's reply outlined her responsibility but she has serious questions to ask of the local authority as to how this came to happen. I urge her to make the point to the local authority that there is serious and significant goodwill among local conservationists, who maintain that significant mitigating measures could be taken immediately to undo the worst of what was done. Part of her response should be to indicate how that can be done and force the local authority to move to address such mitigating measures immediately.

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