Dan Boyle (Green Party)

When I hear such half-baked messages and witness ignorance, I have to say the people who are making these accusations are least well considered to make them.

The accusations by the Labour Party, particularly with regard to water quality, are incredible. At a time of national economic downturn and particular pressures on capital expenditure, the Green Party, through its Minister, has managed to increase spending on water infrastructure. This is the only area of capital expenditure where that has happened in the past three years, yet the Labour Party sees fit to criticise this.

The issue of Haulbowline is close to my heart. I have been campaigning on this issue for 20 years and the Minister alluded to it. The biggest pollution was caused by the Ispat deal in 1995, which was sanctioned by a Labour Party Minister for Finance and a Fine Gael Minister for Enterprise. The State sold the asset for £1 and put in no measures of environmental protection. The State then encouraged the EPA to engage in a merry dance for five years while the pretence of a waste licence was being given. This all happened on the watch of the rainbow Government. That is when the most pollution occurred. When I hear Labour Party representatives in the Cork Harbour area criticising the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, who has spent more on environmental protection in the years we have been in government-----