Last evening I was urging the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment to seize the opportunity to jump the legislative queue that undoubtedly obtains in relation to the preparation and formulation of legislation and to take on board a Second Reading of this Bill to establish an environmental protection agency. My experience tells me that such a decision would not in any way compromise her views in relation to the priorities of such an agency while, at the same time, ensuring that in the course of our Presidency of the EC when, as the Taoiseach has said, it is hoped to make the environment a major issue of that Presidency, we would not then be faced with the ludicrously embarrassing position of not having the relevant legislation before the House.
With regard to the Taoiseach's priorities vis-á-vis Ireland's Presidency, and specifically in relation to the question of the environment, as far as the Labour Party are concerned we welcome this conversion manifest within Fianna Fáil and, perhaps to a lesser extent, among the Progressive Democrats.
In the Labour Party policy discussion document published on 5 June 1989 we stated that the Labour Party's priorities should be, and I quote:
Labour believes that the priorities of environmental policy for any socialist Party must have two aspects — domestic and international. A clean environment at home is of little benefit in a world that is choking to death. Similarly, there can be little point in our protesting about the threat from outside if we fail to keep our own house in order. Labour's priorities, therefore, are set out under these headings.
The Labour Party proposes that Ireland should adopt as a national policy, the support of a comprehensive set of responsible environment actions and commitments so as to establish Ireland as a place which is uniquely "green". Ireland is the least densely populated State within Europe and still remains substantially pollution free. While substantial dangers threaten our environment, these can be overcome with proper and effective management, combined with a national collective will.
The objective should be to create a comprehensive and complete commitment to the establishment of a "green" environment. The benefits to all sectors of our society would not only result in an improved environment at home but a transformed reputation abroad. Irish products — ranging from food and beverages to industrial products — would be recognised instantly as being environmentally sound, organically pure and intrinsically clean. In a world becoming increasingly concerned with problems of contamination and environmental pollution, the positive image of a green Ireland, in the real sense of the world, is an objective which must receive full support.
That objective, which in part appears to have been taken on board by the Taoiseach — in a rhetorical sense if nothing else — and, broadly speaking, would have the support of most progressive Members of this House, will be placed seriously at risk on account of the political footsteps that must be taken within the next couple of weeks, never mind within the next six months by the Minister of State. We cannot begin to appear credible vis-á-vis our present environmental record while we have, on the one hand, the abolition of An Foras Forbartha, with their attendant reputation and, on the other hand, promised legislation which clearly will not arrive in time to be enacted before the cessation of our term of Presidency in June next.
One must ask what kind of national disgrace is the Minister endeavouring to bring on the entire country — indeed all the intimations of grandeur are beginning to surface in the demeanour of the Taoiseach in relation to our forthcoming Presidency — if we are to have a green, environmental declaration promulgated from Dublin Castle, with all its attendant pomp and ceremony while, at the same time we are in breach of the EC Directives on Environmental Impact Assessment — belatedly being taken on board after approximately two years — in addition to not having an environmental protection agency of any kind, whatever its composition? The Minister of State would be well advised to consider jumping the political queue and take that proposal on board.
I do not agree with everything in the Fine Gael Bill. Indeed, the Fine Gael spokesperson does not expect everybody in this House to agree with all its contents, nor do the Fine Gael Party regard the Bill as being of unique quality and value so that not a single sentence or clause can or should be changed. That is not the point at issue at this stage of our legislative debate. The point is that we need some kind of environmental protection agency. It is my belief that we need something more interventionist than the agency proposed by the Fine Gael Party, one that would have a certain degree of "hands on" involvement rather than the excessive influence placed on its policing aspect indicated in the Fine Gael Bill. Whether they be the proposals of the Fine Gael Party or those set out in our policy discussion document, either would be better than what the Minister herself intimated last evening and at the substantial press conference at which details of the proposed agency were made available at a time when there were other environmental matters occupying the citizens of Dublin city.
We believe that what we need is an environmental management agency. It is not just a question of protecting the environment; it is a question of learning how to manage it as well.
Again I shall quote from our policy discussion document as follows:
Labour believes that it is absolutely essential for the future that the management of the environment be entrusted to an independent agency, with adequate resources and powers. The Environmental Management Agency we propose would be statutorily established. It would have a representative council with an independent secretariat and executive staff.
The Environmental Management Agency would be jointly representative of the State, producers, consumers and workers. Its Council, representing the social partners in the broadest sense of the word, would operate upon the basis of a framework of legislation and draw up codes of practice for all activities which interact and impact upon the environment.
The functions and responsibilities of that agency would be as follows:
Agriculture, manufacturing, and services would be represented on the Council and would participate in drawing up codes of practice which, when agreed upon, would assume the force of law.
They would in effect provide regulations and legal procedures for any breaches of the agreed codes of practice.
The Environmental Management Agency will have the following functions:
The development and implementation of a National Environmental Management Plan;
The development and implementation of policy and action in relation to specific hazards, including the ozone layer, the greenhouse effect, and other areas where we can make our own contribution;
The overall responsibility for ensuring the involvement of local authorities in protecting the environment;
Responsibility for research and information. The abolition of An Foras Forbartha and the emasculation of the Environmental Research Unit within the Department of the Environment was a scandal. Labour will re-establish An Foras Forbartha as an integral part of the Environmental Management Agency;
Responsibility for Radiological Protection. The Environmental Management Agency will take over the role of the present Nuclear Energy Board in so far as it relates to radiological protection;
Responsibility for functions presently carried out under the aegis of the Department of Health in the following areas — health inspection; food additives; other product chemical additives;
Responsibility for ensuring that all exploration companies will be required to provide all details of environmental information derived from exploration within our jurisdiction.
It is quite clear that, between Fine Gael, Labour and most other parties in this House, there is broad agreement on the need for the establishment of an environmental protection agency, its overall terms of remit, and its being clearly established as an independent body.
In addition, I fully support the concept of an Oireachtas environmental committee. The convention — and I have been a party to it myself and feel all the more culpable as a result — of not accepting legislative initiatives from the other side, irrespective of their merits or demerits, is prevailing and I am sad to note that. I would have hoped that in our maturity we might have got a little further down the road than that. Secondly and more ominous is the apparent limited confinement of the proposed role of the agency that is contemplated by the present Coalition Government. It will not go as far down the road as we would like. I do not think it is going to be delivered in time. I think that in June, when the Taoiseach is promoting and promulgating a declaration on the environment in Dublin Castle, the citizens outside the walls will still be without an effective operating agency. I predict that there will be no environment protection agency in operation with statutory undertakings and backing and a proper budget for 1990 when that council takes place and we will be made the laughing stock of Europe. The Minister, by accepting this Bill now, could avoid that embarrassment.