Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 19 Jun 2008

Vol. 657 No. 2

Adjournment Debate.

Special Educational Needs.

Deputy Joe McHugh

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, to the House. As usual, he will have a standard response.

It is important to outline the seriousness of the withdrawal of special educational needs services in County Donegal. I am trying, with great difficulty, to get to the bottom of it. A major barrier is that neither the Department of Education and Science nor the Department of Health and Children is willing to take responsibility. The Opposition has spoken at length about its objection to quangos. The National Council for Special Education is a quango and is not taking responsibility for the withdrawal of services for children with special educational needs.

The children to whom I refer, whose needs might arise from having asthma, ADHD, Down's syndrome, spina bifida, Asperger's syndrome or autism, require the services in question. They are the most vulnerable people in society, but they are being ignored and neglected. Let me give an example. Carndonagh secondary school, formerly the largest secondary school in the country, had six special needs assistants last year but that number is to be reduced to three this year. The children who need the assistants are still at school and, moreover, three extra children are now enrolled there.

Over 300 parents and teachers and other concerned individuals met publicly in Ballyliffin in north Inishowen last Monday night to articulate the serious need for services for the children with special educational needs. The services were put in place last year but are to be withdrawn in September. I am talking parochially but the quango that is the NCSE, the Department of Education and Science or the Department of Health and Children need to state why the children are being discriminated against and why parents are being left in limbo regarding whether their children will be able go to school in September.

Yesterday, a parent drove from Letterkenny to Dublin. I told her I would meet her tonight or that I would meet her in Letterkenny on Friday. However, she replied that her ten year old daughter, who has spina bifida and is in a wheelchair, has had her hours slashed and the situation was so serious that she will not be sending her child to school in September. It is ironic that the Minister of State with responsibility for integration is present. While that is a completely different portfolio, this pertains to the integration of children with special educational needs into mainstream classrooms. However, funding is being slashed and special needs assistants are being withdrawn from such schools.

I have great difficulty in getting to the bottom of this issue and together with parents in my constituency, I need to know the reason such services are being withdrawn. More specifically, why is no one answerable or accountable for such decisions? I raised this matter this evening to ascertain the terms of reference of the special education needs organiser and the identity of whoever drew them up. Moreover, where do accountability and responsibility lie? I would welcome a deviation on the part of the Minister of State from his prepared departmental script and would appreciate it, were he in a position to indicate to the House a way forward for the most vulnerable.

Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science (Deputy Conor Lenihan)

I am pleased to have been given the opportunity by the Deputy to clarify the position regarding the matters raised by him. The National Council for Special Education was set up to improve the delivery of education services to persons with special educational needs arising from disabilities with particular emphasis on children.

The Deputy may find it helpful if I outline the background to the establishment of the council. It was clear that the Department did not have the capacity to deliver the required level of service to schools, parents and pupils under its existing structures. In October 1999, a high level planning group was established to review current procedures and to make recommendations on the arrangements that should be put in place to ensure the effective provision of a high-quality co-ordinated education service for students with disabilities. The planning group highlighted the over-centralised structure of the Department and its lack of any locally based capacity for service delivery and co-ordination as key deficiencies in the system. The planning group recommended the establishment of a National Council for Special Education to address these deficiencies.

The National Council for Special Education was established as an independent statutory body by order of the Minister for Education and Science in December 2003. With effect from 1 October 2005, it has been formally established under the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004, the EPSEN Act. That Act sets out both the general functions of the council and its specific function in respect of the provisions of the Act. The EPSEN Act 2004 provides a framework for delivery of special education services, as well as statutorily underpinning the work of the National Council for Special Education.

The general functions of the council as set out in section 20 of the EPSEN Act may be summarised as follows: Planning and co-ordinating provision of education and support services to children with special educational needs; disseminating information on best practice concerning the education of children with special educational needs; providing information to parents regarding the entitlements of children with special educational needs; assessing and reviewing resources required by children with special educational needs; ensuring that progress of students with special educational needs is monitored and reviewed; and advising the Department on matters relating to special education. In addition, the council has specific functions regarding the core provisions of the Act, such as assessment and individual education plans.

The council's staff includes a chief executive officer and administrative staff who are based in Trim, County Meath. Special educational needs organisers, SENOs, of whom there are approximately 80, are deployed on a nationwide basis with at least one SENO being deployed in each county. The SENOs process applications from schools for additional teaching and special needs assistant support for children with special educational needs and issue decisions to schools directly. The council took over this function from the Department in January 2005 and operates within the Department's criteria in allocating such support. These criteria have been articulated in various Department circulars and copies have been circulated to schools.

In considering applications for teaching and special needs assistant supports for individual pupils, the SENOs take account of the needs identified in the child's professional report and decide whether the circumstances come within the Department's criteria. They then consider the resources available to the school to identify whether additionality is needed or whether the school might reasonably be expected to meet the needs of the pupil from its current level of resources. A child in a mainstream primary school may, for example, be entitled to additional resource teaching provision in school under the terms of the general allocation system of teaching supports, whereby such schools have been provided with a number of resource teaching hours based on the number of pupils in the school. A child with more significant needs may be entitled to an allocation of additional resource hours if the child's assessment places the child within the low incidence category of special need, as defined by the Department's circular.

In the context of special needs assistant support, a child needing occasional assistance with toileting may, for example, only require a limited amount of a special needs assistant's time, which may be available within the school. As the Deputy may be aware, special needs assistant support in schools is intended to address the care needs of pupils with special educational needs. The criteria for the provision of special needs assistant support envisage that such support is sanctioned when a child has a significant medical need, a significant impairment of physical or sensory function or when the child is a danger to him or herself or other pupils. It is to be expected that very often, this level of care should diminish as the child matures and consequently, the level of special needs assistant support required in the school also will diminish. When a child with special educational needs is in receipt of additional supports in a school and moves school or moves to post-primary education, and no other child with special needs enrols in the school, then the resource, such as resource teaching hours or special needs assistant support or both, is withdrawn from the first school and, if still warranted by the child's needs, is sanctioned for the new school.

All schools have the names and contact details of their local SENO. Parents also may contact their local SENO directly to discuss their child's special educational needs, using the contact details available on www.ncse.ie. The Deputy will be aware that the education of children with special educational needs is a key policy priority for the Government. Much has already been achieved in this area in respect of delivering additional teaching and care supports. There have been significant developments in special education since 1998 involving enhanced levels of provision, as well as new structural and legislative frameworks for the delivery of services to pupils with special educational needs. At present, there are more than 19,000 staff in schools working solely with children with special needs. This includes almost 10,000 special needs assistants, compared with only 300 in 1997. There also are more than 7,800 resource and learning support teachers, compared with approximately 2,000 in 1998. More than 1,100 other teachers support children in our special schools, while hundreds more work in special classes.

These additional supports are allocated as necessary by the National Council for Special Education in line with my Department's policy to support children with special educational needs. It also must be acknowledged that, during the necessary period of preparation and planning for the roll-out of the EPSEN Act 2004, my Department continues to expand capacity and services for students with special educational needs.

I again thank the Deputy for giving me the opportunity to clarify the position on this matter.

School Staffing.

Deputy Terence Flanagan

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this important issue this evening, which relates to two schools in my constituency of Dublin North-East. I call on the Minister for Education and Science to revisit urgently the decision to cut back one teacher each from St. Kevin's junior national school, Donaghmede and SS. Peter and Paul's boys' national school, Baldoyle. I have been informed by the principals of both schools that the number of pupils in each will increase from next September. How does the Minister expect the schools to cope with an increase in pupil numbers when simultaneously, staff numbers are to be reduced? The current crisis in the education system is an issue of national importance and I urge the Minister to reconsider these unnecessary cutbacks in teacher numbers.

Last month, the Fine Gael Party tabled a Private Members' motion to prevent 28 primary schools from losing teachers. I highlighted the plight of St. Kevin's junior national school, Donaghmede, and SS. Peter and Paul's boys' national school, Baldoyle, during the debate and appealed to the Minister for Education and Science to reconsider the preposterous decision to reduce staffing numbers in the aforementioned national schools. Unfortunately, the Minister ignored my plea and I beseech him once again to reinstate these teachers.

The Government has reneged on its promises to cut classroom sizes. In the programme for Government in 2002, it was stated that over the next five years maximum class guidelines would be introduced to ensure that the average class size for children under nine would be below the international best practice guideline of 20 to one. The Government pledged to reduce class sizes to one teacher for every 26 pupils by September 2008. However, these promises lie in shreds as the Minister for Education and Science recently instructed 28 primary schools to cut back a teacher.

St. Kevin's national school in Donaghmede will lose a teacher in the upcoming school year. The school will now consist of four classes, which will mean the amalgamation of the existing classes of junior infants into one class of 35. This class includes six children for whom English is not their first language, one child with special needs and children with mixed abilities. This is certainly an unworkable solution. To have 35 students in one room is outrageous, but to have students that are not fulfilling their own educational needs put in with children with special needs is completely unworkable for the teacher. We should be reducing class sizes rather than increasing them. The school also has a fully equipped classroom available, but this will remain unused because of the latest round of cutbacks. All we need is the reinstatement of one teacher.

The loss of a teacher in St. Peter and Paul's national school in Baldoyle will leave 29 junior infants in one class. This teacher would have facilitated an extra junior infants class, something which occurred before. It would enable the younger children to obtain a proper introduction to school life in a much smaller classroom setting. How can pupils receive a proper education if they are in a classroom of 29? In October 2007, the school predicted a slight decrease in pupil enrolment for the following year. However, this has changed and there will be an increase in students next September.

I ask the Minister of State to re-examine the proposed cutback in the school, which is totally unacceptable. There was a debate earlier today about unemployment. We must educate our young people if we want to ensure there are no greater increases in unemployment. The pupil-teacher ratio in Ireland is higher than the norm and the Government has failed the people by breaking promises made in its programme for Government. I appeal to the Minister and the Minister of State to look again at the proposal to sack 28 school teachers.

Deputy Conor Lenihan

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I am glad to have the opportunity to outline the Department's commitment to the provision of teaching resources to primary schools and the position on the schools to which the Deputy referred.

The mainstream staffing of a primary school is determined by reference to the enrolment of the school on 30 September of the previous school year. The actual number of mainstream posts sanctioned is determined by reference to a staffing schedule which is issued to all primary schools each year. This is a transparent way of ensuring that all schools are treated consistently and fairly and know where they stand. The schedule allocates teachers within enrolment bands and the current bands are based on an average of 27 pupils. Under a system that allocates additional teachers at different step points under a common schedule, it is a fact of life that changes in enrolment can effect the mainstream staffing of a school.

Any year that enrolments fall in a school can result in the loss of a teacher. Equally, when enrolments increase a school can gain a teacher under the operation of the staffing schedule. While around 120 schools will lose a teacher in the next school year compared to this year, there will still be a net increase of around 500 teachers, as five times as many schools are expected to employ an additional teacher due to an increase in enrolments.

Within the terms of the staffing arrangements for primary schools, there is provision for additional posts to be assigned to schools on the basis of projected enrolments for the next school year, and these are known as developing school posts. Under such arrangements, a developing school post may be sanctioned provisionally where the projected enrolment on 30 September of the school year in question equals or exceeds a specified figure. If the specified figure is not achieved on 30 September, sanction for the post is withdrawn. It is open to the board of management to submit an appeal under certain criteria to an independent appeals board, which was established to adjudicate appeals on mainstream staffing allocations in primary schools. Details of the criteria and application dates for appeal are contained in the staffing schedule. The criteria are also available in circular 0024/2007, which is available on the Department's website.

The programme for Government sets out the overarching policy position on the provision of additional teachers and on reductions in class size over the life of the Government. While the programme indicated a specific timeline for further changes to the staffing schedule in order to reduce class sizes, it simply was not possible to move any further in the current year. Even since the presentation of last December's budget, there have been significant alterations in the external and domestic environment. In that context, any reasonable observer would regard that the Government has already taken measures that will see the allocation of over 2000 additional teachers to primary schools since last summer as a considerable investment.

Data submitted to the Department of Education and Science by the board of management of St. Kevin's junior national school in Donaghmede indicate that the enrolment in the school on 30 September 2006 was 121 pupils. In accordance with the staffing schedule in circular 0020/2007, which is available on the Department's website, the mainstream staffing in the school for the 2007-08 school year is a principal and four mainstream class teachers. According to data submitted by the board of management, the enrolment in the school on 30 September 2007 was 113 pupils. In accordance with the staffing schedule of circular 0010/2008, which is also available on the Department's website and a hard copy of which has been issued to all primary schools, the mainstream staffing in the school for the 2008-09 school year will be a principal and three mainstream class teachers.

The board of management of St. Kevin's junior national school lodged an appeal with the primary staffing appeal board. The staffing of the school for the 2008-09 school year was considered by the appeal board on 20 May 2008. The board, having considered the appeal with regard to the criteria outlined in circular 0024/2007, was satisfied that a departure from the staffing schedule is not warranted in this case. The board of management of St. Kevin's junior national school was notified in writing of the decision of the appeal board on 26 May 2008.

Data submitted to the Department by the board of management of St. Peter and Paul's national school in Baldoyle indicate that the enrolment in the school on 30 September 2006 was 233 pupils. In accordance with the staffing schedule, the mainstream staffing in the school for the 2007-08 school year is a principal and nine mainstream class teachers. According to data submitted by the board of management, the enrolment in the school on 30 September 2007 was 231 pupils. In accordance with the staffing schedule, the mainstream staffing in the school for the 2008-09 school year will be a principal and eight mainstream class teachers. The board of management of St. Peter and Paul's national school lodged an appeal with the primary staffing appeal board. The appeal was heard at the appeal board meeting on 20 May 2008. The appeal board, having considered the appeal with regard to the criteria outlined in circular 0024/2007, deferred a decision on the appeal application pending receipt of further information. When this process has been completed, the board of management will be notified of the outcome of the appeal.

The Deputy will appreciate that the appeal board operates independently of the Department and the Minister and its decision is final.

Languages Programme.

Deputy Michael D. Higgins

I am grateful for the opportunity of raising this matter and I expect the Minister of State to be as outraged as I am about this incredible blow to integration. Last Thursday, 40 teachers and four support staff were told the language and integration service they had been providing to over 3,000 people who had arrived in Ireland over the last couple of years would be suspended. As a result the 44 employees have been served with redundancy notices. The Department of Education and Science did not consult with the staff on this and neither has it provided alternative services. Instead, in its rather dishonest press release, it suggested:

Integrate Ireland Language and Training Ltd. has informed the Department of its decision to cease providing direct English language tuition to adult refugees and has requested that the Department mainstream this activity within the education system.

What in fact happened was that the Department of Education and Science told the board that it was not going to fund IILT any more. The board had no option but to fold and give its employees redundancy notices. The press release from the Department continued:

The Irish Vocational Education Authority will be asked to identify how direct English language tuition for adult refugees can continue through the VEC network.

It is going to ask for proposals. It has not got an alternative service in place. It went on to state:

The Department is currently exploring other options to provide for in-service training for English language support teachers in primary and post-primary schools.

That is not in place either, so the existing system, which looked after 907 people in 2006 alone, and 3,000 over the last four years, employing 44 people — with technical information and a website that was being used and appreciated in about nine centres throughout the country — is closed down, with no notice to staff and without an alternative service being put in place. The former Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Mary Hanafin, had suggested that since the OPW had sold the property in which IILT's headquarters was located, it was to move to a school. The original headquarters had been at the veterinary college in Ballsbridge which was sold to private developers, as one might expect from the Government. The then Minister announced in 2007 that IILT would be moving to Greendale comprehensive school. In February 2008 the staff had been invited to look at the new headquarters. Then last Thursday they were called in to be told the service was gone, their jobs were no more and they would get statutory redundancy. That is integration — close down the service before a replacement is put in place. The different materials and aids that IILT had been using so successfully are to be transmitted to the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, and in time they will go somewhere else.

I believe the Minister of State knows very well that the service which was being provided was at five levels, and was not only about language. It was about being in a new country and how to read, as it were, the demands of a new situation. There was a long history to all of this. It would have been very interesting, for example, to provide that in the short term the service could be continued while the mainstreamed alternative was being put in place. However, that is not happening. There is no sign of the mainstreamed alternative. There is neither a better nor equal alternative.

In all of these circumstances, one should bear in mind that the Irish Refugee Council is in support of what I am saying and in terms of expressing horror at this. One should remember whom we are talking about. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees's newly arrived placement refugees will receive in the interim no language or integration training as a result of this disastrous and undemocratic decision last Thursday.

Deputy Conor Lenihan

I thank the Deputy for giving me the opportunity to outline to the House my Department's position regarding the mainstreaming of the English language tuition service for adult refugees which has to date been provided by Integrate Ireland Language and Training Ltd.

IILT is a non-profit campus company of Trinity College Dublin which was established in 2001 to co-ordinate language training for adult refugees with the support of the Department of Education and Science. Since then IILT has provided direct English language tuition to adult refugees, primarily in the greater Dublin area and increasingly in recent years in a number of outreach centres around the country. At any one time it had approximately 450 students receiving English language tuition. IILT in the past also provided some in-service seminars to language support teachers in schools, although the company ceased providing such seminars in mid-2007. The Department is currently exploring other options to provide in-service for English language support teachers in primary and post-primary schools.

IILT approached the Department of Education and Science earlier this year with a proposal to withdraw from direct tuition, except for provision for programme refugees, and requested that the Department mainstream direct tuition within the education system. I assure the Deputy that this was an approach by IILT itself, not a move initiated by the Department. This is a request the Department is happy to agree to at this time as it accords with the overall approach to provision of services to migrants as set out in Migration Nation, a statement on integration strategy and diversity management recently launched by me, as Minister of State with responsibility for integration.

Following the withdrawal of IILT from direct provision and from in-service seminars, the Department has decided to redirect the funding for these activities to other providers. The Irish Vocational Education Association has confirmed that it is happy to co-operate and collaborate with the Department of Education and Science in delivery of necessary English language services. The VEC sector has already developed best practice in ESOL provision. The sector is providing English language services for those whose first language is not English. At present services are provided to over 12,000 people annually, which makes a mockery of claims made in some quarters that the VEC system is not capable of carrying out this task.

Deputy Michael D. Higgins

That is not my claim.

Deputy Conor Lenihan

A further advantage of mainstreaming such provision through this sector is the fact that the VECs have a nationwide network that can readily provide classes across the country using their facilities in schools and centres.

The learning and support materials already developed by IILT will transfer to the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment which will ensure that they continue to be available to schools and ELS teachers throughout the primary and post-primary system. These materials are currently available on IILT's website and I assure the Deputy that they will continue to be available in that way until suitable alternative arrangements are put in place.

Deputy Michael D. Higgins

Will the Department fund the service in the interim?

Deputy Conor Lenihan

IILT, which is a limited company registered under the Companies Acts, will commence the process of voluntary liquidation and will cease operations on 31 July. As part of this process, the staff members will receive their statutory redundancy entitlements.

Deputy Michael D. Higgins

If they offer to provide the service, will it be funded?

Deputy Conor Lenihan

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter and point out that this decision to put language provision on a sustainable long-term footing is both timely and appropriate and fully consistent with the overall approach as set out in Migration Nation, the document I published some weeks ago. Delivery of these services is being mainstreamed and there is no loss of funding for such services whatsoever.

Deputy Michael D. Higgins

And nothing happens in the interim.

Deputy Conor Lenihan

I appeal to those who I understand are planning a protest march in Dublin tomorrow on this issue to call the protest off. There are channels for dealing with the issues that arise here.

Deputy Michael D. Higgins

The Department should offer to supply a contract for the employees.

Waste Management.

Deputy Liz McManus

I should like to share some of my time with Deputy Billy Timmins, with the agreement of the House.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise plans by Rentokil and South Dublin County Council to destroy seven cylinders of hydrogen cyanide in the Manor Kilbride area of west Wicklow. I condemn the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government for not being here for this important debate. West Wicklow must not be allowed to become a new dumping ground for such dangerous and potentially lethal chemical waste. There has been too much illegal dumping in that area in the past.

I am calling on the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to halt this crazy plan and to introduce legislation to deal properly with this issue. It is astounding that the transport and disposal of such dangerous material has been kept secret from the public. No licence has been issued by the EPA, no risk assessment has been published and there has been no public consultation with residents or local public representatives. Hydrogen cyanide is a particularly dangerous chemical, once used as an agricultural poison. Concentration of 300 mg of the gas in air would kill a person within a few minutes. It is commonly listed among chemical warfare agents that cause general poisoning and it is listed under schedule 3 of the Chemical Weapons Convention as a potential weapon. It was reportedly used in death camps in Nazi Germany and, more recently, in the genocide of the Kurds. Rentokil approached South Dublin County Council about the destruction of its stock of hydrogen cyanide which is now decades old. The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government then got involved and asked the Army to identify sites for the controlled burn or explosion of the chemicals. Manor Kilbride in west Wicklow was chosen. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, is the responsible for that choice.

This plan is all the more surprising because according to South Dublin County Council "the advice from chemical experts and manufacturers is that the cylinders are safe to remain in the building in their current condition and position". If that is the case, why then embark on a risky procedure of burning the chemical and exposing people to potential risk and the area to potential pollution? Army personnel have been told to vacate the Kilbride army camp for four days. A 1 km wide exclusion zone is planned, although families living within that zone have not been properly informed.

The lack of information and consultation has fuelled anxiety among local people and generated considerable alarm. No risk assessment has been published. That is simply unacceptable. No environmental impact study has been published in accordance with EU directives covering the destruction of explosive substances which is probably illegal. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has the power to halt this plan and he should use it.

Yesterday, I travelled the road from the Army's camp at Manor Kilbride. It is a small country road with poor surfacing and potholes. These conditions give rise to new concerns. The transport of these cylinders carries great risk. No such journey should take more than two hours. If cylinders are disturbed in transit, they are prone to explosion. I was contacted reluctantly by an expert in the risks attached to the transport of hydrogen cyanide. If an explosion were to occur, he said he would not be able to forgive himself. He was that conscientious but what about the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government?

If he were in the Chamber, I would say to him that the illegal dumping in west Wicklow did not happen on his watch but this disposal of highly toxic material by explosion will. I urge the Minister to stop this madness and leave the material in situ for the time being where it will be safe. He must prepare legislation to protect and inform the public instead of riding roughshod over the concerns of people in west Wicklow.

Deputy Billy Timmins

I thank Deputy McManus for sharing time. The substance is stored in the constituency of the Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, at Ballymount industrial estate. While I am not a chemicals expert, concerns have been raised over this disposal process. This concern has been fuelled by the lack of information available and the disdain shown by the authorities for the population in west Wicklow. It brings home the inefficiencies and remoteness of local government from the people it purports to serve. People already have a mistrust of the authorities involved in the operation because they refused to engage with them at an earlier stage. The operation was going to be carried out covertly, unknown to anyone. Fortunately, information came to light. Deputy McManus has covered the technical aspects of this operation. I agree the disposal of such waste must be put on a statutory footing.

Deputy Conor Lenihan

The Deputies' concerns have also been raised with me as a representative of the Brittas area. Councillor John Hannon has taken the matter up directly with South Dublin County Council.

Less than 1% of waste generated in Ireland in 2006 was hazardous but I accept this waste presents a significant threat to the environment and human health if it is not properly managed. The necessary legislation concerning the management of waste, including hazardous waste, already exists. Under the Waste Management Acts 1996 to 2008, a seamless chain of control exists covering general duties on producers or holders of waste, persons who collect or transport waste and concerning the disposal or recovery of waste.

Under section 32, a person shall not hold, transport, recover or dispose of waste in a manner that causes or is likely to cause environmental pollution. Where the holder carries out any transport, recovery or disposal, the relevant provisions of the Act for such activities apply with supervision or overall management of the activity being a matter for the relevant local authority, or the Environmental Protection Agency, as appropriate. Local authorities have substantial powers to enable them to tackle problems associated with the disposal of hazardous waste. Under section 55 of the Waste Management Act, a local authority has the power to order measures to be taken in the disposal of waste as they see fit. Section 56 also empowers local authorities to directly take appropriate actions to prevent or limit environmental pollution caused by waste.

The Environmental Protection Agency has statutory responsibility for the preparation and review of the national hazardous waste management plan. As part of the current review, a proposed plan, covering 2008 to 2012, has been through a public consultation process and is due to be published shortly.

Under section 26 of the Waste Management Act, Ministers, local authorities and relevant public authorities are required to have regard to the plan and, when they consider it appropriate to do so, to take measures to implement or otherwise give effect to recommendations contained in it.

Some 48% of the 284,000 tonnes of Irish hazardous waste generated is exported for treatment and disposal abroad, mostly for thermal treatment. The balance is treated on-site at industrial facilities or in a network of 15 authorised hazardous waste treatment facilities in Ireland. The primary objectives of the proposed national hazardous waste management plan are to prevent and minimise hazardous waste and to manage in an environmentally sound manner the hazardous waste which cannot be prevented.

I presume the Deputies' interest in this matter is prompted by recent media reports concerning the management of hazardous material being held by a private company, Rentokil. The company, as holder of the material, has the statutory responsibility to resolve this matter not only under the Waste Management Act 1996, but also under the Safety Health and Welfare at Work Acts 1989 and 2005, the Dangerous Substances Act 1972, the Protection of the Environment Act 2003 and accompanying regulations and licensing regimes. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has no function in this regard.

Deputy Liz McManus

The Department made the choice.

Deputy Conor Lenihan

In April 2007, Rentokil made the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government aware of the existence of seven cylinders of hydrogen cyanide at its premises at Ballymount. This followed a series of meetings held by Rentokil with South Dublin County Council, the Defence Forces, the fire services and An Garda Síochána to develop a solution for the disposal of the cylinders. South Dublin County Council has taken the lead agency responsibility in this matter and has maintained appropriate contact with the relevant statutory authorities, including the Health and Safety Authority and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has written to the council requesting that it considers the steps it can take to ensure an appropriate resolution of this matter by Rentokil within the relevant regulatory requirements for waste management and disposal having regard to the hazard involved.

On 10 June 2008, the council issued a press statement detailing the steps it would take as the lead agency in the disposal of the cylinders. The council continues to work closely with all relevant agencies in dealing with this matter.

The Dáil adjourned at 5.30 p.m. until 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday, 24 June 2008.