Dáil debates

Wednesday, 4 December 2019

Environmental Impact of Quarries and Incinerators: Motion [Private Members]

 

3:50 pm

Photo of Michael CollinsMichael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the motion. Ireland's reliance on exporting waste cannot continue. I ask the Government not to rush too heartily into pushing waste electricity facilities without diligently researching the impact the sites would have on the local communities and the environment, and so we do not see a scenario where the alternative is worse for people's health and the environment is polluted even further.

The Government's record on environment is dismal. I would like to see stricter guidelines on the construction of wind farms and better dialogue with local communities where such facilities are built. Planning guidelines are needed for solar farms. Currently there are none. The Government's policy creates a vacuum and developers take advantage of the situation by pushing through poorly thought out applications without consideration for the environment or rural communities. This has happened recently near Bandon and Kinsale. We must listen to the concerns of the people we represent. This is not being done by the Government.

In my constituency I have seen how the Government does not take local concerns into account with regard to protecting the environment. In the past 12 months in Skibbereen the people had to go all the way to the High Court to stop the building of a plastics factory. In the Bantry area, after kelp farming was given the go-ahead without local consultation and proper investigation into the environmental impact, the people had to go to the High Court to put a stop to it. Both cases were successful, but at great expense and time to local volunteers who are trying their best to save the environment.

I proposed to the Taoiseach a park-and-ride scheme in west Cork from Clonakilty. He seemed to be encouraged by this and we thought he was thinking along the same lines on it, but there was inaction from the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. When I went to the office of the Minister, Deputy Ross, I got the usual thing, and we all know what happens in there. We have constant congestion in areas like Bandon, Innishannon, Clonakilty, Dunmanway and right through west Cork because of the Minister's blatant disregard for west Cork. A private company is now taking the initiative in providing an affordable private transport alternative that will take thousands of cars off our roads annually and improve people's quality of life and the air we breathe.

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