This draft report contains five fairly technical proposals and our comments on them. I will be very brief in my presentation of them because I do not think they are matters which should delay the Joint Committee.
The first four relate to the Community's programme on the environment. The first one relates to micro-pollutants in water. Its aim is to co-ordinate, for a period of four years, the research being carried out or planned in the Member States. So it is a co-ordination of research. The Joint Committee was informed that Ireland would participate in the project via the exchange of information about work presently being carried out by An Foras Forbartha and that it would benefit from reciprocal information concerning related research in other participating countries. This is an example of where, because we are a member of the European Community, we participate in research, we do some of the research here in An Foras Forbartha and we exchange the information. The committee saw this as desirable and as something that Ireland is at present engaged in and which will continue.
The next one on atmospheric pollutants is again a co-ordination of research into areas of atmospheric pollution. It is a continuation of an earlier programme under the overall auspices of COST from 1972-76. It would be carried out over a four-year period and would involve laboratory studies, field studies, modelling and so on. We are informed that Ireland would participate in this project, this time through the kind of work which is being carried out at present in the Chemical Engineering Department of University College Dublin. This would be made available to other countries and we would receive reciprocal information. Again, the Joint Committee thought this was very desirable.
The third relates to the pollution of groundwater. This is a draft directive which follows a Council Directive of 1976 on pollution caused by certain dangerous substances discharged into the aquatic environment. Article 4 of the earlier directive envisaged a separate Directive on groundwater. The object of this proposed Directive is to preserve all usable groundwater resources from contamination. Groundwater is defined as water which is below the surface of the ground in the water saturation zone in direct contact with the ground. There is some interesting content in this Directive. In Ireland we have the Local Government (Water Pollution) Act, 1977, which was designed to ensure that the quality of national water resources is maintained to a satisfactory standard consistent with the various beneficial uses of the water. There is no problem at all with the Directive except for one provision which causes certain problems of reconciling it with our 1977 Act, that is, towards the end of paragraph 10 we say:
However the Department has drawn attention to one discordant provision in the draft Directive which relates to authorisation of indirect discharges e.g. deposits involving percolation through the ground which while controllable under section 3 of the Local Government (Water Pollution) Act, 1977 are not licensable under the Act.
The EEC approach is to require prior licensing. Therefore, there is a slight problem of reconciliation. The view of the Department was that the 1977 Act is a satisfactory approach and that this would be preferable to seeking prior licensing. The Sub-Committee, having considered the views of the Department, support that view and hope that the proposal itself will be adopted to the Irish approach to control them. In paragraph 11 we note the view of the Department of Industry, Commerce and Energy, which believes that the few industries in this country which do discharge waste into groundwater would be compelled to instal treatment plants if the proposed Directive is adopted and that these treatment plants might be a considerable cost for the particular firms; they might have to adapt to the Directive.
The next proposal is one on sulphurous emissions from fuel oils. This is a matter which the previous Joint Committee had examined in its Fiftieth Report. At paragraph 13 the Sub-Committee states that this draft Directive would provide for the setting up of special protection zones where air pollution by sulphur dioxide and smoke exceeds certain specified limits. Inside these zones with some exceptions only low sulphur oil could be used after 1 October 1978. There would also be provision outside the special protection zones to cover local concentrations of sulphur dioxide and smoke and temporary adverse weather conditions. At paragraph 14 our amendment would make certain changes to that. At paragraph 15 we refer to the report of our predecessor. We say:
The previous Joint Committee concluded that even if the Directive is adopted the need for declaring zones of special protection is unlikely to arise in this country in the foreseeable future.
We express some grave reservations regarding the very high cost of part of this proposal, that it would be of minimal benefit to this country and would hardly justify the very heavy additional expenditure involved for the ESB. We, in this report, endorse the conclusions of the earlier report.
The final draft instrument covered by this draft report is one which does not have great concern for Ireland. It relates to the protection for electrical equipment. It is not an environmental one, it is more one of freedom of movement of goods, the removal of technical barriers to trade in electrical equipment for use in potentially explosive atmospheres. It provides that this equipment must conform with harmonised standards. The Joint Committee is advised that neither the original Directive in this area nor the present proposals have substantial implications for Ireland. It is very technical and we need not concern ourselves too much with it.
At the end of our report, we refer to the various bodies we consulted while examining these four environmental proposals, and the fifth one on the question of the removal of technical barriers to trade in electrical equipment. We thank those bodies which made submissions to us.
