Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

I broadly welcome the thrust of the Bill, although I do not agree with everything in it. A clean environment is of immense importance to our quality of life and standard of living and is economically beneficial. An unclean environment is often a sign of economic and social backwardness. We saw this in central and eastern Europe when the Iron Curtain fell. To the extent that this Bill means we are becoming more serious about environmental protection I entirely support it.

We remember the days 50 years ago when cattle markets were held in the streets and one could only go into the main street of a town if one was wearing boots. More recently we have seen hedgerows strewn with litter, and animals, if not humans, suffering from mysterious ill-health caused by pollution, the source of which was difficult to locate. People were afraid to complain for fear that they might endanger employment in an industry even though it was a dirty industry. Today, we can afford higher environmental standards. Indeed, we cannot afford not to have them.

I have little sympathy with the anti-service charge campaigns which are routinely conducted, mainly by parties and independent politicians of the left. I remind Senator Tuffy that service charges legislation was introduced by the leader of the Labour Party, Mr. Dick Spring, when he was Minister for the Environment in 1983. In the 1980s when taxation was very heavy there was a case to be made about double taxation. However, in the present situation when taxation levels have been vastly reduced, as the Labour Party is the first to say, there is no case whatsoever for complaining about double taxation.