Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

I thank the Minister for being here to take the Bill. I appreciate his having given me a commitment in October on the floor of the House on the need for year-round water quality monitoring. That is something I have sought for a long time. I will start by acknowledging his commitment to that and asking if we might have a timeline for when that might be brought in.

I welcome our visitors in the Gallery who are here from a number of groups and who are activists on the issue of water quality and environment in Dublin Bay, particularly those from the SOS Dublin Bay group. I will speak a little more later on the work done by that group. I want to acknowledge the great interest in and support for the issue of the environment of Dublin Bay and the protection of the environment that I have experienced since I first started raising this issue. I raised it first in summer 2021 when I was running in the Dublin Bay South by-election. It was something that had become increasingly apparent to me during Covid and the lockdowns, starting in 2020 when I and many others around the country began to gain a greater appreciation of the need to enhance the environment around our coastlines and in our sea water. Many of us took up sea swimming and while I know it has become a bit of a cliché with the dryrobe-wearing sea swimmers, I plead guilty to being one of those. Jesting aside, Covid gave us a huge and renewed appreciation of the need to put in place proper structures and frameworks for preservation of our natural environment generally and particular our coastline, bay areas, swimming areas and seas. As an island nation, this should have been apparent to us a lot longer ago but perhaps we had disregarded it or neglected it as an issue.

It was in that vein that I first put together a Bill to ensure that that sort of statutory framework would be put in place for the preservation and enhancement of Dublin Bay. We drafted a Dublin Bay Bill. I was thrilled and honoured to be elected to represent Dublin Bay South in July 2021 and after that we worked on the Bill. It is almost exactly 12 months ago, on 7 December 2021, I introduced the Bill in the Dáil on First Stage and then it went into the lottery. This is my first lottery Bill and I was delighted when it was pulled out of the hat to have the opportunity to put it forward today on Second Stage. I hope that the Government will not oppose it. I see the Minister is shaking his head and I thank him. It is positive to hear that he will enable it to proceed because it is a Bill that should get cross-party support from Government and Opposition alike, because it enshrines such an important principle. If passed, it would promote a radical new vision for the protection and enhancement of the wonderful natural amenity on our doorstep that is Dublin Bay. It would establish a statutory Dublin Bay authority charged with preserving the distinctive character of Dublin Bay and protecting its ecology as a coastal resource. In particular, it would improve the amenity of the bay for sea swimmers, sailors, walkers along the shoreline and all of those who want to use the bay area.

We look to establish an authority with its mandate to propose and promote policies and priorities for the protection and enhancement of the environment of Dublin Bay and of the natural habitats and wildlife in and around the bay; to co-ordinate, promote and support strategic planning and sustainable development in and around Dublin Bay; to make recommendations to regulate and control pollution in and around the bay; to promote public interest in and respect for Dublin Bay as a public amenity; and to co-ordinate the activities of public bodies and other organisations and persons in matters connected with the performance of its functions.

Crucially, membership of the authority will come from elected members of the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly and others with a special expertise or interest in the future protection of the bay. That co-ordination and that democratic accountability is what we see as hugely important in the establishment of this statutory authority. We are conscious that there is already a non-statutory task force that has a similar role but which has no teeth because it is a non-statutory entity. Over the last year or so in particular, I have become very conscious of the very significant role that Dublin Port plays in the planning and development of the Dublin Bay area. The difficulty there is that Dublin Port should be just one of the stakeholders charged with a role in deciding on the future of Dublin Bay. It should not be the only one and there should be democratic accountability in the authority that has this role in ensuring the preservation of the environment of Dublin Bay.

While environmental protection of Dublin Bay will be a priority for the new authority, it will also have a mandate to improve access and facilities around Dublin Bay and to improve public amenities in the area. The authority would have the aim of creating a better framework for environmental protection, governance and improvement specifically of water quality for all those who use the bay. The idea is that through the creation of this authority, we would have a strengthened framework for the protection of one of our great resources. It is a great resource not only for those of us in Dublin Bay South but all across Dublin. I know that Deputy Ó Ríordáin, representing Dublin Bay North, has as strong an interest in this as I do and, indeed, as any of us who represent coastal constituencies do. All of us in Dublin have strong connections to the body of water stretching from Howth to Sorrento Point. We have strong connections to the bay. It is the first thing we see when we fly in if we are on an aeroplane flying home or if we are in a ship coming in from abroad. It welcomes us. It is where many of us learn to swim, sail or paddle and, of course, it is the location of the opening chapter of the great Dublin novel Ulysses. All of us have this strong connection.

I return to the support I have received and the network of organisations that are supportive of this Bill.

I am very proud to have worked with a large number of people and organisations on this Bill. In this regard, I give particular credit to our local councillors in Dublin Bay South, Mr. Dermot Lacey, Ms Mary Freehill and Mr. Kevin Donoghue. Councillor Lacey, in particular, has been calling for a co-ordinated statutory authority to take over the governance of Dublin Bay for a long time.

I have also worked with the group SOS Dublin Bay, an important local group with a considerable number of supporters that launched some time ago a petition called SOS – Save Our Sea in Dublin Bay. The petition now has more than 20,000 signatures, which again shows the strength of feeling on this issue. The group was formed arising from concerns about water quality in the bay area.

I have also worked with swimmers from the Half Moon Club in Poolbeg. A large group of us swim very regularly off the South Wall. We had a new ladder put up by Dublin Port recently. We call ourselves the Half Moon Mad Yokes, a somewhat ironic name. Swimming is hugely important for people's physical and mental health.

I have also had great support from the local residents' group SAMRA, the Sandymount and Merrion Residents Association, which has been really supportive from the very start. I held a public meeting in Sandymount on 13 September. I was staggered to see how many people came along. They included councillors from Dublin Bay South, Labour Party councillors from Dún Laoghaire and many people with no party affiliation, including local residents and those from further afield, who simply wanted to see a structure put in place for the preservation and improvement of the Dublin Bay area.

To return to the existing structure, or lack thereof, the informal task force currently has no statutory powers. There is, therefore, a lack of co-ordination with regard to the protection and enhancement of the wonderful amenity that is Dublin Bay. Nowhere is this more evident than in the crumbling dereliction of the old Sandymount and Blackrock baths, which anybody who goes up and down the coast will be familiar with. There is such a severe lack of facilities for those who want to use the sea or bay in a more meaningful manner, including those who want to swim but who lack really good facilities. We see good facilities in other countries. In Barcelona, for example, the port has been greatly improved as a public amenity. We see the lidos in London and all sorts of other examples of where much better facilities have been provided and much better use has been made of a city coastline. We should have a lido with public access at George's Dock for all swimmers. That is the sort of initiative that a new authority with statutory powers could deliver. There is an example elsewhere of this sort of statutory model.

On the east coast of the United States, a statutory task force was established some years ago for Chesapeake Bay to preserve it, improve its water quality standards and encourage its greater use as a public amenity. The deterioration and pollution of Chesapeake Bay in the 1980s caused local public leaders to come together to form this task force. That focus saw significant increases in federal funding to preserve the bay and resulted in very much improved water standards and more responsible use of the bay for local communities. That is the sort of community facility we want to see established in and around Dublin Bay. We have some great examples of enhancements. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, for example, enhanced the Dún Laoghaire baths, which are due to open next week. The Clontarf coastal bicycle route has greatly improved facilities but there is no co-ordination, nor is there a structural statutory framework to co-ordinate the preservation and enhancement of the bay area. That is why we are calling on colleagues from all parties in the Government to support this Bill.

My colleague Deputy Ó Ríordáin will speak further about why we need to see this legislation put in place.

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