Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill, which I do not support in any way at all. Amending primary legislation to amend regulations is the wrong legislative process. The substance of this Bill is incorrect in attacking an organisation like An Taisce, which has an exemplary record in this country since 1948. It supports communities widely throughout this country and uses its considerable experience and qualifications to protect the country. I have heard allegations of significant influence, motivations of negative influences or disproportionate influences and allegations of doing harm being made against An Taisce. Nothing could be further from the truth. People must understand that An Taisce is not a decision-making body, but rather it comments on and submits observations to planning applications. It shares the considerable experience it has with local authorities throughout this country and it helps us achieve better planning decisions. It is not a decision-making body. To frame it as such is completely wrong and shows a lack of understanding of the work An Taisce does.

This Bill is not only an attack on an organisation, but an attack on all the communities which benefit from the work An Taisce does widely across the country. This Bill is anti-climate action because An Taisce has done so much excellent work on climate action. The Bill is anti-environment and anti-nature, which are issues that affect every person in this country, no matter what age or what part of the country a person comes from. Children who have not been born yet will benefit from the work we are doing on climate action and in protecting nature, supported by An Taisce. The Bill is anti-community groups because of the excellent work An Taisce does with its National Spring Clean scheme. Think of all those Tidy Towns and community groups throughout the country which benefit from working with An Taisce.

This is also an attack on children and students across this country who are so proud and work so hard to get their green flags in their schools, which teaches them about safe routes to schools and how to reduce transport and the effect that has on communities, congestion, air quality and emissions. The Bill is against waste reduction because those children work so hard to earn their green flag on waste reduction within their school. It is also against water quality and water conservation as children get their green flags and work really hard to try to conserve water and learn about the finite resource we have which is being damaged throughout this country. An Taisce draws attention to that issue and help us put in policies and legislation to protect our water quality. In fact, An Taisce helped us greatly when we were discussing the marine protected areas and the Maritime Area Planning Bill.

The Bill is also against energy conservation. We need to conserve our energy. We are aware of the difficulty in this regard and the emissions that come from fossil fuel dependency. An Taisce helps children to realise how important energy efficiency and conservation measures are in their schools. The Bill is against coastal communities. This is an attack on coastal communities. Coastal communities are proud of the blue flags they earn. Towns, coastal communities and lake communities benefit from the blue flag scheme through visitors and tourism. It is an attack on those coastal communities.

Attacking An Taisce is nothing less than attacking everyone in this country. It is an attack on our built heritage as well. An Taisce has done excellent work in protecting architectural heritage through every town and village in this country, no matter where they are. That includes those towns and villages represented by the group which has put forward this Bill. This Bill is an attack on the work An Taisce does and on the considerable expertise and experience it has in addressing illegal quarrying in this country. Illegal quarrying has an impact on water quality. Communities suffer from the fumes and emissions from the associated transport as well as from the damage done by illegal quarrying in this country. If you are against all those groups, that is, communities, children, coastal communities and architectural heritage in the country, the question has to be asked, who are you loyal to?

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