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

I thank the Minister of State for his very generous closing remarks and, indeed, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, for his very comprehensive response earlier. I absolutely agree with the Minister of State. I would be delighted to move forward with this Bill in a spirit of collaboration as he and the Minister have suggested. Indeed, I already indicated to the Minister that I will take him up on his offer of meeting with officials in January to see how we can make progress with this Bill. I have a good track record of working from Opposition with the Government to ensure the passage of legislation.

I am absolutely open to amending and improving on the Bill, where necessary, to ensure we see the principles it enshrines brought in. I absolutely acknowledge that a great deal of good work is going on to improve and enhance the amenity of Dublin Bay. The core issue here is the lack of co-ordination, the lack of joined-up thinking and the lack of a framework within which the work can continue and within which there will be democratic accountability.

There are four key principles I want to see brought in. They are currently lacking and this Bill would address them. One of them is the need to ensure adequate protection for the environment. That is absolutely huge. Clearly, as the Minister of State and others have pointed out, this is a biosphere.

We have a UNESCO designation for the bay and we need to ensure that there is a proper framework in place to ensure its protection and sustainable development.

Second, we need to ensure it is improved as a public amenity. The Minister of State correctly pointed out the cultural significance of the bay, as did Deputy Ó Snodaigh and others. I do not think anyone but Deputy Ó Snodaigh can claim to have had the contents of the bay come into their bedrooms. However, the stories other colleagues have told of their experiences of Dublin Bay and my experience as someone who swims in the bay every week speak to its cultural significance for all of us. Beyond the public amenity aspect, the bay has a visceral importance.

The third issue is the lack of democratic accountability in the framework for the planning and development of the bay area. The fourth issue, and probably the overarching one, concerns co-ordination and the need for joined-up thinking. My colleague, Dermot Lacey, to whom I referred earlier and who has done much work to improve co-ordination of the Dublin Bay area, has spoken about how nine different statutory agencies currently have responsibility. We know there are four Dublin councils. Others have spoken about the great initiatives taken in Fingal, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and Dublin City Council in respect of the bay amenity, but there is a need for a joined-up co-ordinating body with statutory power that will also have democratic accountability. That is what we seek to address in the Bill in order that the environmental amenity will be protected and the public realm will be too. Deputy Ó Ríordáin spoke eloquently about that. I am happy to work with Government to ensure that we can bring into being a legislative framework to address the four concerns around environment, public amenity, democratic accountability and co-ordination.

I will speak on some of the issues colleagues raised. I acknowledge those who spoke and the great support we have got on a cross-party basis, not only from the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, and the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, but also from Deputies Boyd Barrett, Andrews, Devlin and Ó Snodaigh. I acknowledge Deputy Carroll MacNeill, who cannot be here but who previously indicated great support and who has worked with me on the water quality issue. On that issue, section 6 was addressed by the Minister in some detail. That section would seek to amend the bathing water regulations and ensure we have water quality monitoring and data over the whole year. I thank SOS Dublin Bay for working with me on this provision and I acknowledge the visitors in the Gallery and all the activists who have worked on the issue of water quality.

I listened carefully to what the Minister said and have engaged with Uisce Éireann or Irish Water on UV testing. I am delighted about the UCC project that is under way. I was also delighted to hear both Ministers speak of the need for real-time monitoring to ensure informed decision-making for those who wish to swim in the bay. However, those comments illustrate the lack of coherence around the argument against year-round water quality monitoring. It is a little bit like the old, derided policy in the US military, “Don’t ask, don’t tell”. The argument is if we do testing year round and the water quality is poor, we will have to stop people swimming, the water will be designated as unswimmable and we will have to close designated swimming areas. That misses the point. We need to use the data to improve water quality and to change things. It is like telling someone not to go to the doctor because they might get a diagnosis. The point is to use the diagnosis to avail of treatment and engage in treating the water, improving water quality and trying to find out what is wrong with it.

We do not want to swim in unsafe water - nobody does - but we want to swim year-round. I swam three times last weekend. There were huge crowds swimming around the bay. Colleagues have spoken of the huge numbers in their areas now swimming year-round. The reality is the whole of Dublin Bay is now a designated bathing area. My Labour colleague, Martha Fanning, swims at Blackrock DART station and Williamstown, which were not thought of as swimming areas and which are not designated as such. We swim off the South Wall at the Half Moon Swimming and Water Polo Club. It used to be a very underused area but now huge numbers of people use it. The whole year is now a bathing season because so many people have embraced it. It is not just about swimmers. Many others use the bay and would like to see water quality improved. I hear from constituents about dead birds, dead seagulls and even dead foxes on the beach. Others have spoken of dog fouling. It is a serious issue.

There are huge concerns regarding sewage. We have spoken about the Ringsend waste water treatment plant. Not long ago, 300,000 tonnes of sewage sludge was dumped into Dublin Bay every year. Welcome measures are under way to address this, but we still lack a co-ordinated statutory framework to address issues around pollution and water quality and ensure protection for the environment and protection and enhancement of the public realm and the public amenity that is the bay.

That brings me to the structure of the new authority. To address issues the Minister raised, we sought in the Bill to use existing frameworks. The Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly already has power to establish special committees and section 2 of the Bill would establish this statutory authority as a special committee. We are trying to use existing framework and structures to ensure co-ordination is possible. We seek to ensure there will be democratically elected members of the assembly who will be members of the authority and to build on the existing structures like the biosphere partnership to ensure joined-up thinking.

I acknowledge the work of the Minister of State’s colleague, John Gormley, who in 2008 sought to bring a co-ordinated, cross-party, cross-institutional approach to the management of Dublin Bay through his Dublin Bay task force. That was an important initiative but ongoing issues around water quality, lack of enhancement and protection for the public amenity and environment of the bay indicate the need for a stronger overarching body to control the management, development and enhancement of the bay. This need was brought home strongly to me when I was first elected, had a tour from Dublin Port and heard of their great plans for development of lands along the South Wall. I have also seen their work with BirdWatch Ireland, which is welcome. I have met with Covanta, which has a huge stake in the area surrounding Ringsend and Poolbeg. We need to ensure that representatives of the public interest play a central role in planning what happens with Dublin Bay, not just at Poolbeg and Ringsend in my constituency or Sandymount and Merrion but all around it. The Bill refers to Dublin Bay from the Baily Lighthouse to Sorrento Point and that overarching control, management and co-ordination needs to be brought about through a measure like the Dublin Bay authority.

I look forward to working with the Minister of State, his colleagues in government and colleagues cross-party to ensure this Bill or the principles in it are enshrined in law. I thank all the activists. I have mentioned SAMRA and SOS Dublin Bay but there is also the seal sanctuary, the Commodore's in Dún Laoghaire, Flossie and the Beach Cleaners, the Coastal Concern Alliance and many more who have worked hard on a voluntary basis to enhance Dublin Bay. I thank my political advisor, Chloe Manahan, who has worked closely with me on this, and Finbarr O’Malley, our drafter, who worked on the text of the Bill.

It is such an important principle that we would see a co-ordinated statutory body with a democratic legitimacy and accountability, as well as the central responsibility for the planning, protection and enhancement of Dublin Bay. For far too long, we have talked about this. John Gormley spoke about it in 2008 and tried to work on it. We now need to see a whole-of-government approach, working with partners in opposition, to ensure future protection and enhancement of Dublin Bay. This Bill represents a necessary first step to change how we treat and see Dublin Bay, to stop us taking it for granted and to realise its remarkable potential, not just for all of us but also for future generations.

I thank colleagues for their great support. I also thank our visitors in the Gallery for their activism and work. I look forward to working with others to ensure that this Bill becomes law.

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