I represent the views and concerns of a community in the Slieve Felim area, the hill country of North Tipperary and Limerick, about a proposal to locate a dump, euphemistically known as a landfill site, in the Slieve Felim mountain region. These people have struggled hard for many years to overcome the natural disadvantage of living in a remote mountain region. I have seen many positive protests by these communities.
In my 30 years in political life I have not seen as much determination and concern as was expressed at public meetings in Rear Cross and Cappaghmore and in the other community halls in that region. Rear Cross is a small mountain village well known in Tipperary folklore and in stories about our fight for freedom. The hall and adjoining schoolhouse were packed with people attending these meetings. The proceedings were relayed from the hall to those in the schoolhouse and outside who could not get into either building. This community has more rich qualities — not wealth which others have — than any community I have been privileged to work with over the years. These people are concerned about a decision which will affect them and their children for generations, to locate a proposed landfill site in the heart of beautiful mountain country.
Where decisions of this kind are proposed, much less adopted, by local or national Government, will the Minister guarantee that the community directly affected, such as the mountain people of Slieve Felim, will have free and full access to all information on the proposed landfill site? They should not have to seek or demand this information — it should be made available to them from the beginning. These people collected money from those who could ill afford it in an attempt to match the money available to local and national governments so that they could be well informed. I want a commitment from the Minister that they will have access to all the information available to the local authority — Limerick County Council in this instance — and the Department of the Environment.
They should also have access to all the conclusions and findings of any examinations which were conducted and the reasons and justifications for such conclusions. A firm of consultants advised Limerick County Council and these people should be entitled to the consultants' terms of reference. If one looked at the best location for a dump or landfill site in purely engineering terms, one would probably choose the most remote area, in terms of a wide open and free place. A dump might not intrude visibly in such a place but it would be an environmental disaster. I wish to know the terms of reference of the consultants who seem to have recommended the location of a landfill site in the Slieve Felim region.
Ironically, the Seanad is discussing the Waste Management Bill at the moment. Consumerism is a characteristic of society in our towns and cities. The waste from our consumer society must be dumped or located somewhere. However, we decide to dump it in areas which are not contributing to the huge growth in waste, which is a regrettable feature of our society in recent times. Someone decided that a place of pristine beauty and remoteness, such as Slieve Felim, was an ideal place to locate the waste from our towns and cities — Limerick city, in this instance. Rural communities are paying the price for the waste in our cities and the lack of management on the part of the local authorities.
Our local authorities are meant to have a primary responsibility to protect the environment. In that capacity, they should clearly demonstrate that they will always give first priority to protecting and enhancing the environment to ensure that what we inherited from previous generations — the people of Slieve Felim did not inherit much in terms of national wealth although they did in terms of character and culture — is not intruded upon in an offensive way by the location of a dump site in the heart of beautiful hills.
As I said, we are currently discussing the provisions of the Waste Management Bill, which contains some welcome initiatives which we agreed on an all-party basis. The Bill contains initiatives and provisions which are much more stringent in respect of the power of local authorities to locate landfill sites or dumps of this nature than those which operate at present. Why, in those circumstances, are the local authorities proposing to locate a landfill facility at a site in the Slieve Felim area before these provisions come in?
This area is classified as severely disadvantaged for agricultural and every other purpose. It is a remote area with a falling population and low income levels. However, through a remarkable effort, the community has built up its own tourism programme and attracted people from other countries to visit beautiful Slieve Felim and walk through the hills. It is a unique and beautiful area which tourists from congested cities want to visit. It is unacceptable for their efforts to build up some degree of security and protect what they have to be set at naught and for us to impose further man-made obstructions on their development.
If information is available from the Department of the Environment or the county council, the local people should have maximum access to it. The community in Slieve Felim is very concerned about what happens today but they are much more concerned about what will happen for the generations to come. They are greatly worried about the future quality of the water if this proposal is adopted.
