John Whelan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. It is my view, and it is well-founded, that our country has had a sorry and pitiful experience and relationship with many of its regulators and watchdogs. That is particularly the case with the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, which is charged with protecting the environment and local communities. My specific question pertains to a debate conducted in the Seanad on 9 July last year when the then Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, former Deputy Phil Hogan, in one of his final functions as Minister, on foot of a debate in this House, fairly instructed the EPA to conduct an investigation and report on the activities of the Enva waste oil recycling plant in Portlaoise, with particular regard to the ongoing concerns about the unlicensed and unregulated open vent emissions, which I believe are potentially carcinogenic and toxic. The Minister took our concerns very seriously. He asked the EPA to carry out an inquiry and report into the matter and directed on that day that the report would be made public.

Furthermore, as recently as 4 November, before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht, the director general of the EPA, along with other senior officials, in response to a question from my colleague, Senator Denis Landy, indicated that such a report had been concluded and that its publication was imminent. In view of this we have been patient but at this stage the public and public representatives are entitled to have this report put into the public domain so we can see what the EPA has cooked up on this occasion.