Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

There is no difference between the Senator's view and mine on this issue. His amendment would come into effect five years from now in 2008. In the Bill I propose a much shorter timeframe up to 2007. The IPPC directive provides that established activities must be IPPC licensed by October 2007. The Bill provides for this deadline to be met in two ways. Established activities are newly licensable by virtue of the directive. The power given to the Minister in section 82(4) of the Bill to make orders to bring established activities into the licensing net will be used to achieve a target date of October 2007. This will be done in an orderly, phased manner, as was done in the 1990s when IPC licensing was successfully introduced.

Subsections (10) and (11) of section 82 require that as regards established activities in respect of which licences are already enforced under the 1992 Act, those licences will be examined by the EPA for compliance with the directive and the agency will take appropriate action to ensure full compliance in that regard by October 2007. This action can include carrying out a review of the licence, which the EPA is mandated to do, amending its conditions or declaring in writing that no further action is required. There will be differences among the licences, probably on account of some of the more traditional activities in which some companies may have been engaged.

The Bill, as drafted, would ensure that the benefits which accrue from being an established activity in terms of the phasing in of licensing will end earlier than is proposed in the amendment. The proposed amendment is not necessary. Perhaps the Senator wanted to tease out the issue.