Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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703. To ask the Minister for Health if he will undertake independent health screening of communities living adjacent to Coillte public forests to ascertain the impacts of Cypermethrin as the regulatory bodies do not appear to have been monitoring or testing for impacts, while 100,000 litres have been used in public forests over ten years. [29213/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I have been informed by Mr Simon Coveney, T.D., Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine that the regulatory system for plant protection products is designed to ensure a very high level of protection for humans, animals and the environment. Therefore only products that can be used safely, without any unacceptable risks to human health or the environment are authorised for use.

Furthermore, I am informed that a screening monitoring programme in 2005-2006 looked for cypermethrin at targeted sites but did not result in any detections and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine are not aware of any subsequent detections.

In the circumstances my Department has no plans to undertake an independent health screening programme on the impacts of cypermethrin.