I bring this motion on the Adjournment before the House because Mount Usher Gardens, Ashford, County Wicklow, are in danger of closure. I do not think that could have escaped anybody's notice in the last month. During the summer months the press publicised the danger to Mount Usher, one of the prime tourist attractions of County Wicklow and of Ireland. It is a great irony that the foremost garden in the garden county is now threatened by practices which are hostile to the environment. It will be a bad day for Ashford, Wicklow, and for Ireland if Mount Usher has to close.
During the summer months I was asked by Mrs. Jay, the owner of Mount Usher Gardens, to visit the gardens to see for myself what was happening. I did this in early June before the controversy broke.
There are two features threatening Mount Usher of which the Minister will be well aware. One is the threat to the Vartry river and the second is the threat from an adjacent sewage treatment plant. It is incredible that any county council could have placed a sewage treatment plant beside one of the prime tourist attractions in its county, yet this is what happened. Wicklow County Council placed a sewage treatment plant to deal with Ashford sewage beside Mount Usher many years ago. That sewage plant is now overloaded and foul odours are emanating from it having a dreadful effect on visitors to Mount Usher. Many visitors have complained.
It is obvious that no owner would have gone public on an issue like this unless she or he was absolutely desperate. To some extent going public is self-defeating because it is telling the world about the dangers, the difficulties or the lack of attractions of this spot in Ashford, County Wicklow, but so desperate was the owner of Mount Usher and the residents of Ashford that they decided to go public to induce the Minister and the Government to do something about this problem before it was too late.
The problem is acute. There is a plan before the Minister to pump the sewage from Ashford and Rathnew into the new plant in Wicklow town, which has just begun operation, but that plan at the earliest estimate will not come into existence until 1997. We are now five years away from that and Mount Usher will have to put up with five more years of foul odours, of tourists being put off and of acquiring a bad reputation.
I say to the Minister that Mount Usher and Wicklow cannot wait until 1997 for action to be taken. If these foul smells continue, nobody will be going to Mount Usher by 1997. People will either by-pass it because it has a bad reputation or it will be sold by the present owners either for development or to someone who wants to close the gardens completely. One way or the other it will be adversely affected.
I do not exaggerate. Bord Fáilte have written to Mount Usher this summer telling them that they no longer comply with the standards Bord Fáilte expect from a garden with such an international reputation. They do not think they can advertise it any longer because of the foul smells which confront tourists when they go there. The Historic Gardens and Houses Association also wrote to Mount Usher during the summer saying they will also have to reconsider the membership of Mount Usher Gardens for its association because it is in danger of non-compliance with those standards.
This is a tragedy for Ireland. It is a tragedy for tourism and employment in the area. Everybody maintains that it is somebody else's responsibility. Wicklow County Council maintain that it has a great deal to do with Dublin and there is nothing they can do because the plan is with the Minister. The Minister is not responding to letters from the Mount Usher owners.
The other element of this tragedy is the appallingly low present level of the Vartry river which flows through Mount Usher. That low level is now threatening the ecology of the area and particularly the plant life. An extraordinarily comprehensive study by Mr. Adrian Hamilton of the Vartry River in County Wicklow, called "The ‘Death of a River"' was issued in 1991. In summer months that river is down to a trickle and urgently needs more water. It was declared a salmon river by the EC, and by the Government as far back as 1982. The fish life which used to flourish in that river is no longer as healthy as it once was. If the Vartry River, which is the life blood of Mount Usher and other parts of Ashford, County Wicklow, and of Hunters' Hotel and other prime tourist spots, is allowed to die, not only will the village of Ashford but one of the great tourist spots of Ireland will be allowed to die. We have a combination of a river being allowed to run dry and a sewage plant being allowed — and the emphasis must be on "allowed" because it is neglect and lack of action which is killing this prized heritage. The Minister must provide the funds not just to facilitate the end of these foul smells but to make sure that it happens long before 1997. Otherwise Irish tourism, Wicklow tourism and Ashford tourism will suffer an appalling loss and Mount Usher will have to be closed.
