Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish everybody a very happy new year. May all their gods go with them, in whatever way they come over the next few months. I support Senator Whelan. It is interesting that it is Fine Gael, the Labour Party and Independent Members who are coming together on this side of the House to find out how we can boil town-wide tankers of used oil in Portlaoise, whose smell has a huge effect on health, without getting an answer from the EPA.

I am quoting the national broadcaster but the most interesting aspect of the documentary was that the EPA made the weakest defence I have ever come across, trying to tell us what it was, why it was like that and whether it was good, bad or indifferent. It was so weak that one would despair.It is interesting because when I came into this House as a young buck, and much thinner, I really thought that things happened much faster but one learns in politics that it takes a long time to bring about change and we accept that. Senator Whelan spent two years examining, and bringing in reports on, this issue and yet there has been an impasse. I would like the Minister to tell us - the Leader might facilitate us in this regard - where exactly this report is, what it states and why we have had such weakness from the Environmental Protection Agency at a time when we are all talking about climate change, the effect of atmosphere on water and the need for cleanliness in our atmosphere for health regarding the explanations from companies like this one previously fined for such pollution. I would have to agree with Senator Whelan in this regard.