I thank you, Sir, for having allowed me raise this matter which has been the subject of much discussion by the ordinary person in the street and in the media.
There have been numerous promises made by the current Minister of State at the Department of the Environment since she assumed office in relation to environmental matters but in their impact on what is happening on the ground none of those promises has had any realistic or positive effect. The time for talking is over. For the past two to three years we have known that this city was threatened by an endemic major, recurring smog problem. This is no surprise, this is no environmental earthquake that has occurred without prior warning. This has been forecast for quite some time.
I have to say that a very courageous, young Minister, who has taken on the responsible of Minister of State in the Department of the Environment — has been given a very dirty political job in more ways than one. She has been hung out, not to dry but to choke by the present Administration and choking she is because the reality is that this Government have no real, immediate answer to this problem. We have had promises for the future, we have heard all sorts of promises about what they will do at some stage in the near future.
I note that the seventh cavalry has now arrived in the person of the Minister for super smog, the senior Minister in the same Department who, in the security of smoke-free Mayo, is able to look on at the choking of Dublin citizens.
There is another dimension to this problem. Who is benefiting from the hype in coal prices and in the price of coalite? We have a private enterprise sector monopoly on the distribution of coal which is causing certainly more than 50 per cent of the problem. This is the deregulated market economy, much beloved of the Progressive Democrats and of the born-again Republicans in Fianna Fáil. On the one hand there are the semi-State bodies such as the ESB, Bord na Móna and Bord Gáis who can actually deliver a clean environment. On the other hand we have private monopoly — Coal Distributors Limited — who have gobbled up the only competitor who surfaced for a short period of time — who are exploiting the choking misery of Dublin citizens in the way in which they have monopolised coal prices in this city. It is an absolute out-rage, compounded by Government inaction, compounded by the problems of administering the provisions of the Air Pollution Act and by the failure of the present Administration to introduce the necessary amendments which they promised frequently outside the House. However, since they never effectively promised them in the House, the Taoiseach on the Order of Business today was able to evade a proper and legitimate response to a legitimate question. I am saying to the Minister of State, who must know there is an emergency, and to the Minister for the Environment, who is an unhappy partner in this new and surprise Coalition Government, that between them they have to work out a solution.