Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

Two aspects occur to me in this regard. If there is an integrated pollution control licence, the conditions applying to that licence must be enforced. If there are planning conditions, it is up to the planning authority to enforce them. The issues of enforcement are of considerable concern to me and the Minister, Deputy Gormley. As the Senator will be aware, we are examining these issues in several planning authorities. If there are specific cases, I call on the Senator to bring them to my attention or that of my officials and we will do our best to address them.

At the heart of a planning system is the presumption that there will be enforcement. If there is not, then the entire planning system could be heavily criticised. Section 172 provides that permission for development in a strategic development zone will be granted if the development complies with the SDZ planning scheme. This amendment ensures the environmental impact assessment and other appropriate assessments must be considered within an SDZ also. That does not touch exactly on the odour issue but I am satisfied it is an issue for planning enforcement. In larger local authorities there is usually an environmental section. In smaller local authorities it falls to enforcement and, sometimes, to the country engineer. There must be robust enforcement of the planning law and especially of planning conditions.