Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

My predecessor changed the legislation in this regard after ten years. I put my hand on my heart and admit I am as guilty as anyone else. I was part of the system and I did not want to hear about dumps – I wanted people to talk about the things we were all interested in. We kept sweeping it under the carpet and we were all guilty of not doing enough. This has been a collective issue.

We have the plans in place and, having listened to the debate, I am more convinced than ever that they should not be overturned. If that happens we will have another ten years of debate. Rubbish will have covered this building by then and we will have a massive problem.