asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if he will take any action against a person (name supplied) in County Meath who received a grant for a silage layout on the banks of the Rathkenny river which is now polluting the river to the extent that the cattle of a person (name supplied) cannot drink the water and fish have been killed.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Meath Silage Unit.
26.
Officers of my Department have been in touch with the situation and I am satisfied that the farmer concerned is doing everything possible to prevent pollution occurring from his farmyard.
The local board of fishery conservators are not aware of any recent fish kill in the Rathkenny river.
Is the Minister prepared to tell us what action he is taking to stop the pollution of this river? He mentioned in his reply that officers of his Department had been discussing the matter with the owner concerned.
We have taken all the precautions that are normally taken. We have asked the fisheries people to specially investigate this. They have investigated it already and have found no pollution. It is an extraordinary thing that the Deputy still presses the charge that there is pollution.
Is the Minister aware that over a year ago the CAO wrote a letter to this person that he was seriously polluting this river? Is he aware that the cattle of the man I referred to cannot drink the water from the river?
I am not sure that it is the CAO's responsibility, if the Deputy does not mind me saying so.
I know that, but in his capacity as CAO, and being anxious about relations between two neighbouring farmers, he thought it was his duty to inform this man what was happening.
The Deputy knows that this man got those grants between 1962 and 1970. At that time there was not anything like the same concern about pollution that exists now. We have certain provisions in schemes since 1974. We cannot go back on this. If a man pollutes his stream then the local board of conservators can take care of it.
Question No. 27.
Can we take it from what the Minister said that he is reluctant to make grants available for silage units on the banks of rivers from now on? Are there precautions to that effect? Obviously a silage unit situated on the banks of a river or near it is a hazard.
Of course it is. There are now provisions to take care of effluent arising from silage making where grants are provided. This was not so in the past.
Is the Minister aware that frequently while we have been discussing this matter in the House it has been apparent that in regard to most of these farm buildings the only safeguard we have is the Minister and the giving of his particular grant? Most of the other controls do not really apply to farm buildings. Can we be assured that the Minister will exercise a very high degree of caution?
I am sure the Deputy is probably aware that any man can build a silage layout for himself without planning permission or anybody else's permission. All the control, as Deputy Haughey says, is that if we are giving a grant we can set out conditions in relation to the grant. We have been doing that in recent years. It is only in very recent years because it is only then that there has been such an awareness of the danger of pollution.
The Minister mentioned that officials of the Fisheries Department were checking it. Has anybody from the Department of Agriculture checked this silage layout? Is the Minister aware that there is another silage layout going up quite near it? I understand that the drainage will be piped from it into this particular river.
I have no power to compel a man with an existing silage layout to make the necessary improvements at this stage.
I am astonished to hear the Minister say there was no worry about pollution in relation to the giving of grants since 1972. I advocated that a man should erect sheds a quarter of a mile up a field because he was a very near a rainbow trout lake and the officers of the Department who were concerned about pollution told him he would not get a grant unless he went that distance from the lake, put in a slurry tank and a liquid tank to prevent pollution.
The Deputy is not quoting me correctly when says that I said there was no worry about pollution at that time. I said there was not the same awareness of the damage pollution could do. I was trying to excuse the people who gave the grant at that time.
27.
asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if his Department will take any action against a person (name supplied) in County Meath whose cows are milked beside a silage layout which is polluting the Rathkenny river, in view of the fact that the milk is for human consumption and the case has been reported to the chief medical officer for Meath.
The question of the suitability of producers of milk for human consumption and their premises is a function of local sanitary authorities under the milk and dairies legislation. I note that the case which is the subject of the Deputy's question has been brought to the notice of the appropriate authority which is the correct procedure.