James Bannon (Fine Gael)

The Leader may tell me that we had the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government in the House last night but he was here on a tight agenda. I ask her to invite him back to this House to debate the need for legislation to ensure that taxation on waste be levied at the point of entry rather than the point of disposal. This would enable society to realistically face up to its national and international obligations on waste management. In the town study yesterday, some towns came out in a poor light on the issue of tidiness and cleanliness. The same could be said of some rural areas, culs-de-sac, lay-bys, etc, where people with filthy habits dump illegally. This matter needs to be tackled and there is an obligation on the Minister to do something about it. The House should hold a debate on the findings of the Government's consultancy study on the issue of local government finance. I understand this study will come on stream fairly soon. The Government invited submissions from local authorities, the managers' association and local authority representatives earlier this year. I understand a document about the reintroduction of domestic water rates was recently leaked from the Department. I am fearful that the Government may be on the brink of imposing further stealth taxes on the hard-pressed taxpayers of this country.