Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Gormley, and apologise for missing his opening remarks. I have heard him speak before on this issue. In the past ten or 15 years, in this and the other House, I have heard so many Ministers speak about waste management that if all the scripts were piled on top of each other there would be a recycling bin to fill. Every Minister comes to this portfolio full of good intentions but we are still not making sufficient progress and we remain as far from the clean, green Ireland we seek to achieve as we were ten or 15 years ago.

We still do not have a co-ordinated national waste strategy. I made this point last week to the Minister's colleague, Senator Boyle, as I have done on many occasions in recent years. The Republic of Ireland is not a large country, but every local authority appears to have a slightly different or slightly amended plan. For instance, the waste management plan for County Cork is different from that for County Kerry and both differ from the plan for County Limerick. That is difficult to accept. If the plan for County Cork represents the best possible solution, there should be no difference in the plans for Limerick, Clare and elsewhere.

Cork County Council spent up to seven years debating waste management before arriving at what the management considered the best solution, which was a combination of a materials recovery facility process and a landfill site. The latter is located in my parish, a mile or two from my back door. It is an enormous facility that cost a significant amount of money to put in place. Cork City Council was to work in tandem with the county council to develop the materials recovery facility. However, the city council reneged on this commitment and that element of the project has not progressed.

While the strategy at national level is focused on waste minimisation and reduction, many local authorities across the State seem to concentrate on landfill. The landfill site in County Cork, in the townland of Bottle Hill, has an enormous capacity and will be sufficient to meet the county's needs for up to 40 years. If we succeed in reducing the level of waste by fully practising the concept of reduction, reuse and recycling, the site could be viable for 100 years.

My concern, as I said, is that different local authorities in this small State seem to be coming up with different solutions to the same problem. Who will take charge of co-ordinating these plans? It is somewhat late in the day for Cork given that tens of millions of euro were spent on the landfill site at Bottle Hill. In other counties, however, where the same financial commitment has not been made, the Department should take charge of waste management to a tighter degree by imposing some type of best national practice. I am not sure how far the Minister has progressed in this regard. It is disappointing that there apparently is no correlation between the Government's waste management strategy and the various strategies of individual local authorities.

When I entered politics in 1985, the local elections of that era were dominated by service charges and, more particularly, people's apparent unwillingness to pay for refuse and water services. Fortunately, there has been a general change in thinking on this issue and most people now accept that the waste they create must be disposed of properly and at some cost to themselves. We have a duty at national and local government level to respond to the public's willingness to pay. Previous speakers referred to civic amenity sites and bring centres, which are a positive aspect of the waste management strategy. While I am disappointed by some elements of the waste strategy for County Cork, several of these civic amenity facilities have been built in the county and are working well. They are a visible illustration of waste management and an important encouragement to the public to bring materials for recovery, reuse and recycling on a regular basis. Local authorities seeking funding from the Department to develop bring centres and civic amenity sites should be facilitated to the maximum extent possible.

The debate on waste continues to evolve. When a county such as Cork spends a substantial sum on a landfill solution, however, there may be an unwillingness to consider other solutions. The waste to energy debate is only commencing and may well assume a pivotal role in the overall waste management strategy. Any prospect of incineration, however, whether industrial or domestic, causes great concern for many people. There is a scientific school of thought to support both sides of the argument. We must invest time and careful thought in considering waste to energy solutions where they are appropriate. We should not shut our minds to some of the new forms of waste management. At a time when there is great concern about the security of our energy supply, it seems unwise to dispose of large quantities of waste underground in landfill sites without fully investigating waste to energy solutions.

Schools have an important role to play in waste management efforts. Children are generally the best informed about good environmental practices and we must continue to encourage that. The debate about water charges for schools is a separate issue but it is part of the Minister's broader environmental responsibility. Will he work with the Minister for Education and Science to consider making funding available to allow schools put water harvesting systems in place? While such systems are relatively inexpensive, they may be a little beyond the budget of individual schools with limited resources. At a time when we are encouraging schools not to waste water — it is proposed to charge all schools for water — we need to help those schools which are willing to install water harvesting systems. The use of such systems in schools would give pupils a good example of best environmental practice. Perhaps the Ministers, Deputies Gormley and Hanafin, can agree on the provision of some form of State aid to assist schools in this regard. While this worthwhile and laudable proposal might not relate directly to the debate, I would be glad if the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government would consider it and discuss it with his colleague, the Minister for Education and Science. The Department should help schools because they are under financial pressure at the moment.