Seanad debates

Tuesday, 15 December 2015

11:30 am

Photo of Sean BarrettSean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the climate change agreement reached by 195 countries. It will require compliance and quantification, not just having regard to the legislation. Both of those elements were missing from the climate change legislation we debated in this House. I also welcome the support from all sides to the effect that the Seanad should have a role in these matters. The original Bill specified the Dáil only.

On climate change and flooding, we need to debate hydroelectric power. We have had the incident in which Cork was flooded extensively by the ESB, which was judged in one court case to be 70% responsible. It is extremely strange to see a man from the ESB announcing the amount of flooding he intends to cause every day by opening the Parteen Weir. How did we get into that situation? The Shannon scheme and other hydroelectric schemes were of huge benefit to the country. I do not know how they are being managed such that they have now become a source of fear among people in respect of the flooding of their houses and farms.

Judge William Hamill wrote in The Irish Timeson Saturday that there are now 142,521 motoring-related warrants not executed. He sees honest people being punished while those who act dishonestly usually escape. Some 8,000 warrants refer to drink driving and 3,000 of those to drink driving charges for which people did not appear in court.We need a debate on the implications of what the learned judge said about the non-enforcement of road safety measures at a time when we are all trying to reduce from 160 or so the number of people who are killed on Irish roads every year.

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