Maura Hopkins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Ballinasloe in County Galway is a town that has made real progress in the Tidy Towns competition in recent years and I strongly commend the local community, committee and council in this regard. However, as a community the people of Ballinasloe continue to be plagued by the issue of waste. In 1999 community representatives took the urban district council to the High Court in their efforts to block the development of a landfill in the town. As a result of that High Court order, on 31 December 2005 that landfill ceased activity. Ever since, the quality of life of people in the town has improved greatly. However, events took a turn in recent weeks when it emerged a private operator proposes to develop on the outskirts of the town a waste transfer facility to serve the midlands. I have many concerns, and I attended a public meeting recently which reflected serious concerns on behalf the public about the environmental impact of the development along with infrastructure issues.

Today I want to focus on the issue of environmental impact assessments for such projects. I have been informed that, at present, waste facilities, such as the one proposed for Ballinasloe, do not have to provide an environmental impact assessment in their planning or waste permit applications if they propose to handle less than 25,000 tonnes of waste per year. I am also aware this system is easily worked around, as operators simply submit applications marginally below that limit. For example, an operator can make a submission for 24,500 tonnes and not be subject to an environmental impact assessment.

I call on the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, and the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Denis Naughten, to amend this 25,000 tonne threshold in planning and waste licensing applications, respectively, to ensure all projects, whatever the tonnage, be subject to environmental impact assessments. It seems wrong that a project of this scale would not be subjected to the full rigours of an environmental impact assessment to ensure all factors, including the impact on the health of the community and the suitability of local infrastructure to cope with such a development, are considered. I ask the Leader to have a debate in the Seanad on these matters.