Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

No, I will use all my time. I hope the Minister when dealing with amendments on Committee Stage will, in an amendment, position the Bill as a temporary measure and set a benchmark for waste disposal, through various means, for the counties. It is easy to take the decision now to provide a new landfill site that will be modern and properly lined and layered. However, there will be seepage from any landfill site. Everybody knows that. Where is the seepage going? It is going into water and eventually returning to the people who use the water. There has been a distinct reluctance to face reality on waste disposal.

The levy on plastic bags was a marvellous measure. If Deputy Noel Dempsey had done nothing else in his five years in the Department of the Environment and Local Government, he would have done a good job. Nobody goes to a shop now without a bag of some description in their hand. They do not use plastic bags. According to the BBC, the UK authorities are examining the measure for the UK. We are ahead of them in that regard.

We have to do something about waste disposal and that is the objective of this Bill. I would love councillors to be strong, resolute and determined in the way they deal with waste management. However, the nature of human beings is such that when councillors are canvassing for votes, they do not want to be the ones to say waste management costings rose in the previous year and that they voted in favour of it.