Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

I welcome the decision of An Bord Pleanála to turn down the application for an incinerator in Rathcoole. I compliment the communities of Rathcoole, Newcastle and Saggart on their energetic campaign against this incinerator. I welcome, and I think many Senators will welcome, that costs were awarded to the community groups because if one wants to have an equal playing field in planning, it is important that local communities are given a strong voice, and this is certainly a step along the way. I look forward to the outline to be given by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy John Gormley, on his proposed policies on the area of waste and I hope we will have an opportunity to discuss that outline very soon.

I am concerned about a number of aspects of the national debate on the economic situation, especially the polarised debate that is emerging between the private sector and the public sector. One way to avoid this is if the policies pursued by the Government are seen as fair and equitable. People are very concerned when they see the proposed capitalisation of the banks that the Government will not take action to ensure fairness and heavy regulation, something we have not seen to date. It is the will of the people that the bonuses, salaries and excesses we have seen in banking would be dealt with if we are to put this amount of money into capitalising the banks. There are big questions about the level of bad debts, which have not been answered. In the spirit of co-operation, I hope the Government will examine today's proposals from Fine Gael on this issue. It is extremely important that they should be examined. We have seen other countries recapitalising banks but it has not been successful and they have had to revisit the matter There is concern that taxpayers' money is being put into the banks, while we are not quite sure what we are dealing with in terms of bad debts.

Energy costs are also of great concern to householders and businesses. On Joe Duffy's radio programme in recent days we have all heard about the huge bills that consumers are receiving. I wish to propose an amendment to the Order of Business that the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources should attend the House to discuss this matter. There have been major cuts in the price of oil, yet we have not seen Government action to ensure the domestic economy benefits whether in householder bills or the cost to industry. Senator O'Reilly has raised this matter as has Senator Healy Eames who cited the example of a Galway firm that had to reduce its staff due to rising energy costs. We should be discussing this critical issue which affects everyone. If we are to regain competitiveness, energy costs will have to be part of the solution.