Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is a very big piece of legislation and there is an awful lot of detail in it. I agree with what has been said by, I think, every Member so far, that this is too rushed. That is what the Government uses December and July for. They seem to be the only months it can do legislation in. It rushes it through here so there is no discussion and debate on it. That is obviously what the Government wants. There are 12 months in the year and we sit for 11 of those months.

There is plenty time for debating legislation. However, the Government insists on using July and December to rush legislation through and to make sure that no debate can take place on it. Next week, 45 minutes will be dedicated to the Committee Stage debate on the Bill. The Bill contains 120 or 130 sections. Allocating 45 minutes for the Committee Stage debate is an insult. The Minister of State would be better off taking all Stages today and getting it over with, rather than trying to pretend that the Government is allowing a debate to take place on the Bill. That would be fairer to everybody because it would mean that Opposition Deputies would not be forced to draft and table amendments, only for them to all be rubbished anyway. That is the reality of how the Government looks at the legislative process and how things go on in this House. I fully agree with all the Deputies who have said that in respect of the debate on this Bill.

I looked at the Minister of State's contribution in the Seanad, as well as that made by the Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, earlier. They were both shocking. This is the level of Government we have. The Minister of State said: “The provisions of the water framework directive have not been transposed into Irish law and the Bill is a significant milestone in Ireland's overall environmental protection measures.” The Minister of State proceeded to say: “Unfortunately [I do not know why he put the word “unfortunately” in there] the absence of a comprehensive and modern abstraction-management and control regime in Ireland has led the European Union to open infringement proceedings against Ireland for failure to fully transpose the directive.” What a surprise. How many Bills are taken in this House, particularly in the months of July and December, funnily enough, that have been put in place on the foot of European infringement proceedings? Such Bills are rushed through the House because we have to meet these deadlines. The water framework directive came in - correct me if I am wrong - in 2007, or 15 years ago. It has taken that long to get to this point. The Government has not bothered to do anything to comply with that directive.

Much has been said about how Europe is bad and is forcing us to do this. It is the Government’s own inaction that is forcing us to do this. Even today, the Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, said that the “Enactment of the Bill will form a considerable part of Ireland’s response to these proceedings”. The Government is not even going to resolve these proceedings. It will just make it look like as if it is doing something 15 years later to comply with the regulations that have been forced on it. That is sad. It makes a mockery of the democratic process and of this House and its Members.

This is the way the Government operates. The Government has done as I have outlined. Obviously, every Government since year dot has done the same thing. It is not anything particular about the current Government. Maybe members of the Government will try to blame the so-called permanent government for it. The permanent government is guilty of it too, because it does not prepare the legislation and does not give it to the Minister of State to rubber-stamp and put through until situations like this arise. That is shocking. However, it is the situation we deal with and live with it in this House. That is how things are done, which, I suppose, is fair enough. That is the way that things will go on.

It is my own fault that I have only been looking at this Bill over the past couple of days. I am not a member of the environment committee, so I do not always see the Bills coming through. I commend the members of the committee on the amount of work they have done in the process of scrutinising this legislation, which is important.

A number of Deputies referred to the registration threshold requirement of 25 cu. m per day. I note what the Minister of State said about how many people this captures and stuff like that. I tend to agree with the Minister of State, and maybe we could flag it up that I do, that 25 cu. m is probably adequate in terms of a registration process. As previous speakers indicated, it is out of line with the situation that obtains in the North, Scotland and Wales. There may be an argument to bring it into line. It is not a huge amount for registration but it would impact on farmers that have lower registration levels. I do not think that they are the big culprits as far as water abstraction is concerned. What I think is much more worrying - although they have to register because they are above the abstraction limit - is the limit of the 2,000 cu. m for licensing thresholds. That is much more worrying. In particular, as was outlined by Deputy Bríd Smith, 21 water-bottling plants are under that threshold. That is shocking. How could any reasonable person look at this and say it is acceptable? This relates to the big bottled water manufacturers who abstract massive amounts of water and who will be let go scot-free. They will not have any licensing procedures or thresholds imposed on them. That is completely wrong. It does not make any sense at all. It probably does make sense for Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil Deputies because their point of view is that these are businesspeople and they are businesses that we have to look after and protect. By doing it that way, they are certainly going a long way to ensure that these businesses will be protected. That is completely wrong, and it needs to be addressed through the legislation.

The other part of this Bill that struck me as I was looking through it is the exemption for certain abstractions. Section 9(3)(h) states: “such other abstraction or activity relating to an abstraction as the Minister may prescribe.” This relates to whatever the Minister thinks. He will see what to do, and that is what he will do. That is completely wrong because there should at least be some process whereby the Minister of State can put this forward to ensure that it is scrutinised and done properly. To provide for anything the Minister may prescribe is not the way to go about a registration process in the context of the Bill. It is completely wrong.

There are other aspects of the Bill that I have concerns about. Committee Stage will be taken next week, for all of 45 minutes, and the deadline for the submission of amendments is tomorrow. I will table amendments and I will see them being rubbished by the Minister of State on the day. Within that 45-minute period, one amendment will probably be debated.

I will leave it at that. I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle

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