Vol. 306 No. 3
(Cavan-Monaghan) asked the Minister for the Environment the steps he has taken or proposes to take to promote co-ordination in policies and programmes relating to the environment and in particular in relation to EEC and international measures; and if he will make a statement on the recent Government announcement regarding the matter.
19.
(Cavan-Monaghan) asked the Minister for the Environment the proposals he has to prepare an environmental policy; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I propose with the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, to take Questions Nos. 15 to 19 together.
The Government decision to which the questions relate was the subject of a statement issued by the Government Information Services on 27 February 1978. The steps to be taken to implement the Government decision are being examined in my Department. I do not propose at this stage to add to what I said in the matter during the debate on the Estimate for my Department which ended on 27 April.
Does the Minister consider it strange that the Government who announced through the Taoiseach on 5 July the change of title to the Department of the Environment should wait till 27 February the following year before making a policy statement of the kind he referred to?
The policy statement was issued last February and what was contained in that statement is now being implemented, including the appointment of an environmental council.
Perhaps I did not ask the question correctly. I was asking the Minister whether he considered it strange that there was a gap from July to 27 February, between the announcement of the Department and the publication of the statement.
No, I do not consider it strange. We could hardly have been expected to announce anything on 6 July. After all, we did come in as a new Government.
May I take it from the Minister's rather curt and dismissive answer that he is unable to tell us that he has any proposals to promote programmes of projects for the protection and improvement of the environment or any proposals to examine the state of the environment and all the other issues here? Is that a reasonable assumption?
It is not a reasonable assumption, it is a wrong one.
Why did he not tell us?
They are at present under examination and I will tell the House about them in a short time.
Am I right in saying that a similar question some months ago elicited precisely the same response?
I would not agree.
I would not call the Minister a liar.
It is up to the Deputy what he calls me, but I do not agree with him.
Would the Minister not agree that the establishment of a new Ministry is a very serious decision on the part of any Government? Would he not agree also that the case must have been established for the need for this Department and that case must have been a pretty detailed one? Is the case for the establishment of the Department not available?
As the Deputy is aware, it was not the establishment of a new Ministry. What was formerly the Department of Local Government was renamed the Department of the Environment to include environmental responsibility.
It has been suggested that there has been no change except the change of name.
That is not so. I will forward to the Deputy a copy of the statement which Deputy Quinn referred to which was issued last February.
Would the Minister explain to the House why the Fianna Fáil manifesto, upon which his party were elected to office, made no reference to this proposed change of name?
That is a separate question.
It relates to the question of policy.
It might relate, but it is a separate question. Deputy Keating wishes to ask one last supplementary question.
I am willing to wait for Deputy Quinn to say something if he wishes to.
The Deputy should cut out the preamble.
Has the extra dimension which the change of name of the Department clearly implies at this stage or at any stage been spelled out in terms of proposals for action?
Some action has already been taken, for instance the formation of the Water Pollution Council which I have already mentioned. I have already told the Deputy that in a very short time we will see more action. It cannot happen overnight. At the moment I am appointing the Environmental Council which I have already mentioned in public.
The Water Pollution Council is not the Minister's creation.
It is. I am now creating it.
We will wait for this action.
