I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this issue at this ungodly hour. The Minister will be entitled to double overtime.
The concerns I voice this evening arise from the large number of fish kills in our rivers and lakes in recent years, particularly this year, and the resultant damage to water quality. There have been five major fish kills already this year and that must be a cause of great disappointment to all Members. Strenuous efforts have been made by the agricultural sector in recent years to improve installations, procedures and practices to eliminate the type of pollution that leads to fish kills. In the past five years more than £60 million has been invested by the Government to assist farmers in carrying out these improvements. In addition, a number of farmers have spent a great deal of their own money on such developments. The IFA has set up a special committee on this issue while Teagasc continues to give advice and assistance where possible. Despite all this work, the fish kills continue.
Not all fish kills can be traced to agriculture. The most recent fish kill in the Dodder river was attributed to industrial pollution. I raised this issue in a priority question to the Minister for the Environment on 13 June. About ten days previously a senior environmental officer in Teagasc had warned that 1996 would be a vulnerable year for fish kills due to the unusual rainfall patterns during the year. He said that our rivers would be a time bomb as a result of those rainfall patterns. We were warned in advance and one would have thought that greater precautions would have been taken. Significantly, however, on the day I raised this issue there were two major fish kills in Country Cork. One occurred on the River Martin, a tributory of the River Lee when more than 4,000 lovely, young brown trout and salmon were killed. Significantly, the drinking water of the city of Cork escaped poisoning and contamination by a whisker, it was as near as no matter that this poison almost entered the treatment plant for drinking water. It is a very serious issue both in terms of the damage it does to fish and our rivers but also its potential damage to public health and drinking water.
Will the Minister outline what action has been instituted in respect of that fish kill? I should also point out that in 1995 there were approximately 85 different fish kills in this country, in respect of 71 of which the regional fisheries board had informed me that it initiated prosecutions. I do not know what happened subsequently but I want the Minister to inform me.
As legislators, clearly we cannot determine whether the provisions of our anti-water pollution Acts are being properly implemented. We cannot properly monitor their enforcement without knowing how many prosecutions are taken and the outcome of each. Though one should not draw conclusions without appropriate evidence, it is logical to conclude that the fines being imposed are not high enough to act as a strong deterrent.
Will the Minister please inform me of the outcome of the 71 prosecutions initiated last year, in how many cases the maximum fine was imposed and generally inform us how the provisions of the anti-water pollution Acts are being implemented by our courts.