Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

I ask the Leader to invite the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Deputy Cullen, to the House as a matter of urgency to discuss waste management, the single biggest challenge facing Irish society today. As Members will be aware, in recent days reports have shown that there are serious infrastructural deficiencies in handling increased quantities of waste. At the same it appears that we are closing landfill sites throughout the country and that the lead-in time for planning permissions for either recycling facilities or incinerators is running at three to five years, which is clearly prohibitive. Will the Leader ask the Minister to come to the House to debate this most important issue immediately?