Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

The intention behind section 39A(7) is to allow a person who proposes to carry on two related activities, that is, an activity involving the recovery or disposal of waste and an activity to which the First Schedule of the 1992 Act applies, to request the Environmental Protection Agency to make a determination as to which licensing regime shall apply before, obviously, the prospective applicant goes to the trouble and expense of preparing the requisite licence application. This lets him or her know at the start of the process the licence for which he or she should apply. There seems to be little merit in an applicant requesting a declaration from the EPA after making an application for either a waste licence or an IPPC licence as the case may be. In that event either the licence application is made under the appropriate Act or it is not. It will be processed, if appropriate, and, if not, he or she will have to go back. Clearly, logically it happens before he or she takes the advice and he or she then makes the application for the appropriate licence under the appropriate Act.