Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I welcome this Labour Party Bill, which was introduced by Senator Wall. Like him, I pay tribute to Senators Byrne and Cummins on their work. I welcome the thrust of the Bill and what is being proposed. The issue must be tackled across a range of areas. It is important that we be able to use technology to ensure successful convictions. We have discussed the right to privacy versus the public good. That matter was raised by Senator Black and others elsewhere, but if no one engaged in behaviour that was damaging to the public good, there would be no need for a Seanad debate on the use of CCTV to ensure convictions. That is the starting point in any discussion where the question of privacy laws is raised. Unfortunately, there are those who actively seek to destroy the civic and public good that we all enjoy.

Thanks to the Department of Justice, my town is lucky to have high-definition CCTV on every street. When I spoke to a local garda on a Saturday night about crime statistics, he told me a funny story. Gardaí were monitoring streets from their station when they saw four yahoos coming out of the local night club and proceeding to the chipper, where they decided to throw their food all over the square. They thought they were funny lads altogether. The gardaí monitored all of this and sent a squad car around, where gardaí told the yahoos to clean up the food or come with them. It was a light-hearted story that showed the effectiveness of on-the-spot monitoring.

There are concerns about the definitions potentially restricting us. All of those issues can be worked out.One of my greatest frustrations when I was a councillor was seeing the amount of money we put every year into environmental and litter programmes - millions upon millions that we could have spent in many other areas. Since that time, Meath County Council has become much more proactive, with a recycling centre and civic amenity sites to ensure we encourage people to treat their waste in a more environmentally friendly manner.

The introduction of a tax on plastic bags by my former colleague Noel Dempsey led to the virtual eradication of plastic waste throughout the country. Growing up, I thought plastic bags were a type of flower or heather, such was the proliferation of them on the verges of the country. We the people caused that because, as my mother would say, there was obviously a want in some of these people that they had to throw their waste out of their car windows rather than put it in a bin. People were against the introduction of the tax to tackle that, but it needed something like that to shake people out of their mindset. One sheep did it, so the other did it too, and it led to this disgusting behaviour that blighted our countryside. We will ultimately overcome this through a process of eradication but if it takes a process needing CCTV footage, so be it.

I have given up on understanding the mentality of those who do this. It is a terrible reflection on the people themselves, who obviously have a want in them. It is disheartening to see how much illegal dumping and illegal littering there is. My town scored badly in the Irish Business Against Litter assessment. Following on from that, I engaged with the county council, which is redoubling its efforts, but nobody can legislate for pure ignorance. In many rural areas, not just towns, the level of illegal dumping on verges approaching scenic areas, such as the Hill of Tara in my area, would make one despair about one's fellow citizens. Equally, there are people who are not prepared to accept that and who will champion Tidy Towns initiatives. I am thinking of Jim Campion in Old Johnstown in my area tidying up around the Hill of Tara to ensure it would not become a litter blackspot.

There is a core issue in respect of the Bill that I want to tackle. The real issue is that of illegal commercial dumping, that is, people who make a living out of this and who have made an industry out of it. A year ago, a case in Trim Circuit Court resulted in the taxpayer facing a bill of €6 million to clean an illegal dump in Rathcore, outside Enfield, County Meath. In that case, 70,000 tonnes of illegal waste, including asbestos, had been dumped over a three-year period. Fifty-one companies had been bringing illegal waste to an illegal dump and left the taxpayer with a bill for €6 million and the environment, more damagingly, with a bill that cannot be quantified in terms of money, given that the asbestos and the contaminated liquid were flowing from this large site into the River Blackwater. Tackling the core issue of those who want to profit from illegal dumping should be our main focus as the Government and the Opposition united, to thwart these people who want to damage our country. In that respect, whether it be fixed CCTV, drone technology or whatever is required, we can work together to stamp this out. In the first instance, however, we need citizens not to accept it and we need to stand up, face one another and say we do not accept this as a practice in our country.

I commend the Labour Party on introducing the Bill and look forward to working with it to see its aims achieved.