Pat Moylan (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State and his officials and note the Minister, Deputy Cullen, was present earlier. The protection of the environment is important. When a person applies to the EPA for a licence for a proposed development, he or she must place a notice in one of the national newspapers and at the headquarters but not the site of the proposed development. We cannot allow this Bill to go through without ensuring that in respect of such proposed development it provides for a requirement similar to that which applies to a person building a house or developing a property in a private capacity who is obliged to place a notice in one of the newspapers and at the proposed site.

There has been talk about the control and management of tip heads, of which a large number have been closed, which will have to be examined because the material dumped in them is dangerous. It will cost local authorities substantial moneys to make them safe. We do not yet know what material has been dumped in them. Some were closed and covered over, perhaps with grass. There is an obligation on all local authorities to make them safe and the Department of the Environment and Local Government will have to make moneys available to them for this purpose. There are probably half a dozen disused landfill sites in each county and a decision may have to be taken to incinerate much of the material dumped in order to make it safe, although this will involve a major cost.

We have not taken proper steps to ensure our sewerage systems are working properly and not polluting rivers and streams adjacent to towns and villages. In many areas the systems in place are old and antiquated, on which substantial moneys have been spent in recent years. However, many are not working, or are not being maintained and managed properly. That leaves much to be desired. One need only talk to fishermen to learn about the state of some of the rivers and streams adjacent to towns and villages. Some of those towns and villages spent substantial sums of money on new schemes that were planned ten or 15 years ago. However, by the time they were up and running, the towns had expanded to such an extent that the new developments had become irrelevant and incapable of doing the job for which they were intended.