Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 28:

In page 17, lines 36 and 37, to delete "by such means as the Agency may advise".

The advisory council is to advise in general on all environmental matters, including advising on the Environmental Protection Agency, so why does the Environmental Protection Agency get to say the means by which a report advising the Government on that agency itself shall be published? It is an oversight body, and the body on which it is engaging in oversight seeks, as the Bill stands, to dictate the terms of the oversight.That is contradictory. The expert advisory council may have things to say about the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, in the broader national interest, and the EPA will have to face up to that. Genuine independence for the council must be ensured and it should not have to operate as the Environmental Protection Agency might wish. Given the amount of regulatory capture, it may be a good idea if the advisory council and EPA were at loggerheads at least sometimes, as this would indicate that the former was doing its job. Too compliant a relationship between an advisory body and the agency it is supervising and regulating in the wider national interest is bad. I thought this was an attempt by the EPA to achieve capture over what I had hoped would be an independent advisory body. If the EPA does not like the advice it receives, that would be another ingredient in the environmental debate we so badly need to have.