Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein)

Is mór agam deis a fháil labhairt ar an rún seo. Tá cuid de na rudaí faoin Bhille seo sách doiléir....sin an pointe a bhí mé ag iarraidh a dhéanamh.

I welcome the robust debate that is taking place and the clarification and bona fides of the Minister. I believe he is telling us how he sees it and how it will play out. In recent years we have had different Ministers for the environment with different opinions. What is written in the legislation is how it will be interpreted and it can be interpreted in two different ways. How the Minister intends to interpret may be one way. We need to future proof the legislation in order that people cannot be caught out and that Ministers with a different agenda might take a different meaning. Although the Minister has clarified a certain number of points in the legislation, what we hear when discussing this issue with people at all the public meetings across the country is that this is a very complicated Bill. When one tries to read through the EU directives on which it is based, they are complicated and point one from one directive to another. It is a complicated process to go through.

Our job as legislators is to make the Bill as simple as possible for the people whom it will affect. The system to be put in place must be clear. Therefore, the information that has been alluded to, specifically around the specification that will be expected of the ground water in the vicinity of the domestic water treatment system that is in place, should be made clear before the Bill is enacted. The Minister should tell the House his intentions for those specifications so that if people want to conduct their own test tomorrow morning they can get somebody to come out and check the water to ascertain whether it is up to standard. We need to remove any vagueness around this issue so that people are clear where they stand on it.