Results 12,961-12,980 of 13,270 for speaker:Pat Gallagher

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: It is necessary to first outline the general background to the section in order to set the context in which it has come about. The purpose of section 99 is to ensure that the legislation is not at any stage an impediment to the implementation of responses to situations of an emergency nature affecting the national interest. Such provision may be needed from time to time, for example, in...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: Section 100 provides that a provision of a pre-1922 statute will no longer have force of law where its application could frustrate the application of this Bill. Given the number, diversity and, in some cases, obscurity of pre-1922 legislation dating back to the middle of the 19th century, it is not possible to identify every individual element of the water services legislative code, despite...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: This amendment to the Local Government (Water Pollution) Act 1977 enables the Minister to make regulations governing appeals to An Bord Pleanála under the Act in respect of decisions by a local authority on the licensing of trade effluent or sewerage discharges to waters under section 4. Section 6 of the Local Government (Water Pollution) Act 1977 already provides for making regulations for...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: It is not an additional charge as those regulations are already in place. This amendment simply addresses procedural matters.

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: The purpose of this group of similar technical amendments to section 104 is to synchronise increased penalty provisions under the Local Government (Water Pollution) Act 1977 with interim increases to those provisions, which have previously been provided for under section 24 of the Local Government (Water Pollution) (Amendment) Act 1990. These amendments insert reference to the previous 1990...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: While this is a technical amendment it is important, being designed to avoid the inadvertent removal of the authority to charge for waste water services once the water services Bill is enacted. If this amendment were not accepted there would be no water charges at all for non-domestic users.

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: This group of amendments adds section 15 of the Public Health (Ireland) Act 1878 to the list of repeals and also provides for the repeal of paragraph 1 of section 29 of that Act. Section 15 of the Local Government (Ireland) Act of 1878 provided in effect that all existing and future sewers and related waste water works in the functional area of a sanitary authority would vest in and be under...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: On amendment No. 132, section 68 enables a water services authority to provide pump-out facilities for boats, tour buses and caravans, to mention but a few. The provision is intended to facilitate the involvement of local authorities in the development of leisure and amenity facilities in their areas. The section is based on section 27(2) of the Local Government (Water Pollution) Act 1997...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: This amendment inserts an additional paragraph (a) into subsection (1) to provide that any reference to a drain in section 69 shall be construed as meaning both a drain and a service connection. Its purpose is to ensure that any pipe draining a premises into a sewer comes within the scope of this section and can thus be declared to be a sewer, with a view to requiring any person discharging...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: Section 69 enables a water services authority to declare that a particular drain shall in future be regarded as a sewer under its control. This amendment substitutes subsection (2) with a revised provision restricting its operation to applying only for the purposes of section 63. The revised provision also stipulates that the drain will be regarded as a sewer under the control of a water...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: The purpose of this set of amendments is to replace references to obligations on occupiers of a premises under section 69 with references to such obligations applying to persons making or causing a discharge from a premises. A similar amendment has already been inserted into section 66 via amendments Nos. 122 and 123. Section 69 enables a water services authority to declare a drain to be a...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: If I agreed to accept these amendments, they would place an unreasonable obligation on the owner of a premises to ensure that the actions of a tenant conformed with the requirements under the section to avoid risk to human health and the environment from waste water discharges. It is appropriate that the liability for breach of a duty of care be placed on the perpetrator of that action rather...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: This is a technical amendment to correct a syntax error.

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: This is a technical amendment to achieve consistency with the wording at the start of paragraphs (c) and (b).

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: Section 70(4) prohibits the disposal of waste water to drainage or sewerage systems which are designed solely to receive storm water. All modern drain and sewerage systems are designed on that basis. The purpose of the amendment is to avoid any problem with the enforcement of section 70(4) owing to difficulty in proving that a particular system was provided in the first instance solely for...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: This amendment replaces and expands the scope of the original section 70(9). The original provision enables the Minister to make regulations to prohibit or restrict the discharge of specified effluent to a sewer. The revised provision, in addition to enabling regulations to be made to prohibit or restrict the discharge of specified effluent to a sewer, will also enable regulations to specify...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: This amendment inserts an additional subsection into section 70 and arises from the series of amendments in section 2 to streamline and clarify the distinction between drains, sewers and service connections. The purpose of the amendment is to ensure that all pipes and drains on a premises come within the scope of section 70.

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: These are technical amendments to expand the definition of both "water supply meters" and "waste water discharge meters" to facilitate the introduction of data loggers or transponders for data collection and remote reading by radio. They reflect the most modern developments in metering technology.

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: Section 72 provides for the basic authority to provide water services by meter. It enables a water services provider to supply water by meter and measure the volume or rate of discharge of water via a meter. Amendments Nos. 152 and 153 will clarify beyond doubt the intent of paragraphs (c) and (d) in subsection (1). These paragraphs enable a water services provider to require a customer to...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2004)

Pat Gallagher: I have been invited by Senator McCarthy to repeat my earlier statement and I am pleased to do so. The Local Government (Financial Provisions) Act 1997 precludes the charging of domestic users for water services. This is in line with Government policy and there is no intention to change it. Existing legislation provides for the charging of commercial users and this is well accepted by all...