Results 281-300 of 13,185 for speaker:Pat Gallagher

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

Pat Gallagher: The purpose of amendment No. 169, which inserts a new section, section 102, is to bring together the provisions of the Bill and the Local Government (Water Pollution) Acts which deal with the determination of fees for appeals to An Bord Pleanála and to align with provisions for appeals to the board under the planning code. It will facilitate the application of uniform procedures by the board...

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

Pat Gallagher: This is an incidental technical amendment.

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...

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

Pat Gallagher: This Bill does not deal with charges. Even if I were inclined to respond positively to the Senator's suggestion that schools should be exempt, it is not the appropriate Bill. There is no mechanism in this legislation to deal with that. Perhaps I did not clarify this sufficiently in my first response. I want to make it clear that metering will be for non-domestic users. There is no intention...

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

Pat Gallagher: I am merely repeating what I said to Senator Paddy Burke. There is no opportunity in the Water Services Bill 2003 to allow me, the Government or the Opposition to introduce an amendment to exempt the institutions mentioned by the Senator from water charges. Absolutely nothing can be done. Lest I am giving the wrong impression, there is no intention to do that. In my earlier contribution I...

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

Pat Gallagher: As far as agriculture is concerned, Senator Bannon is quite right. Agriculture is non-domestic and users pay a water charge. There is no demand by the rural water section of my Department, and no instruction has gone out, to ensure that group water schemes or the individuals in such schemes are metered. I am quite definite about that. I cannot accept this amendment. It has as its basis the...

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

Pat Gallagher: This amendment is necessary to address situations where the volume of water used by a customer may differ from the volume of water supplied by a water services authority. The volume of water used may be affected by other factors such as leakage or illegal connections which are beyond the point of metering. In the circumstances the word "supplied" reflects more accurately the purpose of...

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

Pat Gallagher: I thank Senator McCarthy for tabling his amendment. I have been advised by the Office of the Attorney General that Senators are correct in that the Irish title of the National Rural Services Committee should be included in the Bill. However, as we are discussing the English language version of the Bill, as is practice, the committee will be known by the English version of its name as is the...