Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is welcome to the House. This is an excellent Bill. It equips councils to do their job more successfully. It will also equip our environmental patrol wardens who, by and large, do a great job. The problem they have is that the level of proof required to bring a conviction is significant and this Bill will help that.

I come from a nice part of the country, namely, County Clare. I live near the beach and, unfortunately, there are people in our society who believe it is appropriate to dump rubbish on the beach and in scenic areas. An asset we have as a country is phenomenal scenery. We do not have gold, too much silver or huge amounts of raw materials. The one raw material we have is our landscape and scenery. It is incumbent upon us to keep that in the precious state we find it. Unfortunately, significant numbers of people do not believe in doing that. Thousands of people think it is appropriate to throw rubbish on the street, on the beach or on our landscape. A small minority of those do it on an industrial scale. They make money from collecting and dumping rubbish. They are not registered and do not do their business right.

Sadly, the number of those people who are convicted for what they do is minuscule. We have seen the benefit of improved technology in dealing with crime. We have seen what DNA has done over the last 30 or 40 years. We have CCTV and we need to use it. There is no reason protections cannot be built into the legislation to ensure it is not abused. The vast majority of people want to see the members of our society who are acting the blackguard brought to justice.

There has to be a way to bring Senator Malcolm Byrne's Bill through Committee Stage to ensure whatever protections the Minister of State feels are necessary are built in and that our local authorities are given the necessary equipment and resources to do their job. I do not think a councillor in the country would oppose this Bill because every councillor has been contacted on many occasions about illegal dumping. Many councillors feel frustrated that the people who do it get away with it all the time. This will not be a panacea to solve all problems and eliminate illegal dumping but it will arm the toolkit in a significant way to ensure we eliminate the blight illegal dumping is causing in our landscape throughout the country.

I wish the Bill well, hope it is passed unanimously and congratulate Senator Malcolm Byrne for the great work he has done.