Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 27 May 1992

Vol. 420 No. 4

Adjournment Debate. - Environment and Health Matters.

Mr. J. Higgins

The five western counties are receiving a mere £9.5 million in funding for the national primary roads in the region in 1992. This is against £52.8 million spent in just two eastern counties, Kildare and Dublin. If you look at the breakdown you will see that Kildare gets £33.7 million and Dublin is to get £19.1 million. By contrast, Mayo will get £3 million this year, Galway £2 million, Roscommon £1 million, Leitrim £1 million and Sligo £2.3 million to improve the entire national road system in the Connacht region. A sum of £9 million would not put a decent by-pass around a provincial town. The trend over the past four years has got progressively worse.

I do not in any way begrudge eastern counties getting their due share of the EC cake but I would make the point that roads and infrastructure are vital. They are the lifeline to survival. If you deprive an area of vital infrastructure then effectively you strangle it to death. Surely to God it does not make much sense to spend £50 million on a by-pass around Dublin which shortens my journey by five minutes and invites in thousands of additional cars each day to an already strangled city when tonight this House rejected a proposal to introduce a light rail system which would relieve traffic conjestion and, indeed, three to four weeks ago rejected a rail system which would make a cost efficient, clean transport system available to this city. I urge the Minister, in the allocation of national primary and national secondary road funding from now, to look for a more equitable and more sensible distribution.

Minister for the Environment (Mr. Smith)

I am satisfied that the £9.553 million allocations for national primary roads notified to county councils in Connacht this year represent a fair distribution of available funds having regard to the maintenance needs of these routes and the priority of national primary improvement projects in their areas.

Having regard to the function of the network of national primary roads, which is to provide major long distance through routes linking the principal ports and airports, cities and large towns, the Connacht region will also benefit directly from investments being made outside the region in the current year on projects at Leixlip-Maynooth-Kilcock, Mullingar and in the Athlone-Moate area. These amount to more than £17 million.

I know it is very often the case here, a Cheann Comhairle, that Deputies want to be parochial but as a small economy, exporting 80 per cent of what we produce, Deputy Higgins has a vested interest——

Mr. J. Higgins

I want to protect my region.

Mr. Smith

——in the total national network in order that these exports can flow to the airports and sea ports in different parts of our country.

Mrs. Owen

So much for the Government's western policy.

Mr. Smith

I am happy to know that the Fine Gael policy as far as he is concerned is to restrict the improvements which we want to make in terms of the total national network and particularly in the congested areas as far as traffic congestion is concerned. I take it that he will accept, after due consideration, that the amounts being spent and the total allocation for this region in the context of available resources is all that it is possible to allocate. I will, however, in the context of the new operational programme, be looking at the regional situation and seek to ensure that the maximum available funds are dedicated to the areas of greatest need, having regard to the export and growth potential in our country.

Mrs. Owen

Remember the Cavan potholes.

An Ceann Comhairle

The House will now hear a two-minute statement from Deputy Kavanagh.

Mr. Kavanagh

The public relations officer of Dublin Corporation in an article in tonight's Evening Herald suggested that they should bottle Liffey water and export it to France and make hundreds of thousands of pounds for Dublin Corporation. If he had read this morning's Irish Independent he may not have rushed in to make that statement because he would have noted that the EC are accusing the Government in regard to laws to protect the environment. The article stated that Ireland was failing to implement key European Community laws on water quality and was dragging its feet on the implementation of other legislation on the environment.

It went on to say that the Commission said that a significant number of water supplies do not meet EC minimum standards on drinking water quality, while the investigation of several complaints suggest that the bathing water Directive is not applied to enough waters here. Further on, it suggests that the Commission has identified serious flaws in relation to the laws relating to toxic waste, water, household waste, the protection of wild bird life and had opened legal proceedings against Dublin on all these areas. A further concern is the statement that the Government sources admitted that there had been correspondence between the Commission and Dublin on a number of these issues, such as large combustion plants, shellfish water and ground water.

My concern is that while we seem to have adopted 91 of the 97 Directives on the environment, the Commission are charging that where Directives were adopted many of them have been defective or inadequate in their application into law. In that situation we may have adopted laws that are not meeting the required European Community standards. I hope the Minister can allay our fears in this area because a serious charge has been made which requires immediate retraction, if that is the case, by the Minister for the Environment.

Mr. Smith

I am glad to have the opportunity to tell the House that successive Governments have ensured a very good record for Ireland in the transposition and enforcement of EC environmental legislation.

Since the Environment became an active part of the EC agenda some 20 years ago, some 86 "mainstream" environmental instruments — mainly Directives, have been adopted by the Environmental Council and are in force. Ireland has notified implementation measures to the Commission in relation to 75 of these Directives; in other words, we have fully transposed nearly 90 per cent of the provisions involved. This is a wholly creditable record, and one which stands comparison with other member states.

A real test of a country's performance in this area is the extent to which the Commission legal services, who are very active in this matter, have actually taken legal proceedings for non-transposition of environmental measures. At present there are only three "live" EC Commission reasoned opinions in relation to Ireland's performance: two of these concern matters — emissions from large combustion plant and control of waste oils — on which draft regulations have been virtually completed in my Department and should be made shortly.

In addition, there is technically a case against Ireland in the European Court regarding the birds Directive. In practice, the Commission is not actively pursuing this because it has been negotiating with Office of Public Works on an agreed solution. A press report of today gives a highly misleading impression of Ireland's standing as regards implementation of these environmental measures.

It purports to represent as a new finding the fact that some Irish water supplies do not comply with stringent EC drinking water quality standards. All EC member states have problems in this area, and in Ireland's case the environment action programme anounced a £300 million programme to remedy the deficiencies involved within the present decade; this is being actively implemented. At the same time, we have taken the initiative of publishing a full national report on drinking water quality which will be revised annually. This report, which was published late in 1991, contains a full analysis of the condition of all main drinking water supplied, including deficiencies where these exist.

While in no way detracting from the importance of EC environmental legislation, the draft EC Fifth Environmental Action Programme stresses the need to broaden the range of instruments used to implement environment policy away from narrowly defined legal measures. Community strategy will increasingly focus on the quality of enforcement-implementation networks within member states, on the basis more of management than of legal principles. I welcome this approach and at the same time I am confident that the new Environmental Protection Agency will work to strengthen Ireland's performance and profile in this area.

An Ceann Comhairle

The House will now hear a two minute statement from Deputy Nora Owen addressed to the Minister for the Environment.

Mrs. Owen

Thank you, a Cheann Comhairle,. In the 1985 policy document of the Fianna Fáil Government for the local government elections, the big boast was that Fianna Fáil would continue to be the builder's friend, would continue to build houses for the people in need. Now the big plank of Fianna Fáil policy and this present Government seems to be the line that there is now no more need to build housing estates in Dublin city or county because that is not the way they want to go forward.

The policy of the present Government and the previous Government has led to the existence of lists of over 2,000 families and persons in Dublin County Council area. In 1989 the list was 941 but since 1989 it has grown to over 2,000 families. These are not just statistics but real people living in dire circumstances which are leading to an increase in marriage breakdowns, incest, health costs, wife battering and numerous other problems that exist because of overcrowded and bad living conditions. It is all very well for the Government to say that they do not want large housing estates, but is a budget of £1.9 million to build 55 houses with lists of that size in County Dublin an adequate response to the needs of Dublin County Council? It is less than £1,000 for each person on the housing list. Combined with the ordinary priority list Dublin County Council had to deal in 1991 with 119 families made homeless for all sorts of reasons, including family violence, barring orders, leaving institutional care, family separation, eviction, county council repossession and family accommodation withdrawn.

The real facts of what is happening out there is evidenced by Dublin County Council housing lists. It cannot be ignored further. It is not a sufficient answer to say that the social housing policy is the answer. It is only an element of the answer and I appeal to the Minister to look again at the capital allocation grant to Dublin County Council.

Mr. Smith

The capital available for the Public Capital Programme this year for the local authority housing programme has been fully allocated and it is not possible therefore to increase the allocation to Dublin County Council or indeed any other local authority.

The capital allocation notified to Dublin County Council on 26 February last for their 1992 housing construction programme amounts to almost £2 million. This provides for expenditure this year on houses in progress at 31 December last and for the commencement of 127 new house starts in 1992, 72 of which were authorised to start in 1991 but did not do so and a further 55 new starts authorised in 1992.

In addition to the foregoing, cognisance must be taken of the casual vacancies arising in the council's existing housing stock and the various initiatives available for social housing under A Plan for Social Housing. It is a matter for the council to utilise the new measures to the greatest extent possible to meet the housing needs of their area. It is estimated that all these measures in 1992 will cater for the accommodation needs of over 500 families. I consider that this is a reasonable response to the housing needs in the county.

As the Deputy may be aware, I recently discussed their housing programme with a deputation from Dublin County Council.

I realise, as Deputy Owen has said, that there is still a great number of families in need of housing. I will be anxiously awaiting the council's reply to a number of issues that were raised at that meeting and I will be going to the limits of my capacity in relation to any available resources in the context of the Estimates to make sure that we continue to programme an enlightened and development programme for Dublin county.

Mrs. Owen

For more than ten years I, and other public representatives, have been campaigning for a decent and adequate health centre for Swords which is a town with a population of nearly 25,000. If one compares Swords to a town with a smaller population outside Dublin such as Sligo, for example, one will see magnificant services and facilities in that town of 17,000. A high percentage of the population in Swords are in first time homes and starting families. On the other side there are many older people living in the town.

I want to pay tribute to the fine work of the staff in the health centre in Swords. There are about five nurses there, speech therapists, dentists, a dental nurse and other staff who, against all the odds, are providing a service. The present centre is located in a very old house on the main street. There is also a nurse's cottage on Rathbeale Road for clerical work and where the speech therapist works. The old house was partially improved last year at a cost of about £25,000. The waiting room now holds ten to 12 mothers and children — one can imagine what it did hold — provided they leave the buggies and prams out in the hall or on the street in the rain. On immunisation day as many as 40 mothers can arrive with babes in arms, and small toddlers. The lucky 12 will sit in the waiting room while the remainder queue in the hall or outside minding two or three toddlers mixed in with prams and buggies.

The dedication and resilience of the staff is to be marvelled at. An outside old fashioned toilet with a wash hand basin only installed last year is the facility available at the moment. There is a toilet in the doctor's room but as there is constantly a clinic going on no access to this is available to staff or clients.

An old shed in the backyard has been renovated to serve as the only storage space available. There is no such thing as a staff room or coffee facilities for the staff. There is no clerk or porter — the nurses do all that work.

Twenty eight clinics a month are held, including a new clinic which is located in a community centre in River Valley. This is to be welcomed but it is not adequate.

There is a site available which is owned by the health board. Could there be action got on that, perhaps? I do not want to be told here tonight that yet another committee has been set up to investigate the position. We know what is required and the Minister should know, too.

Minister for Health (Dr. O'Connell)

I am aware that the very substantial growth in the population in the Swords area over the past number of years has placed considerable strain on the existing community health facilities which were being provided in a disjointed manner at different and often unsuitable locations throughout the area.

In view of the condition of the existing health centre, and as an interim measure, the Eastern Health Board have recently improved matters somewhat in the provision of a second dental surgery, redecoration and an improvement of the central heating and toilet facilities. The good news is that on 22 May 1992 I approved the immediate establishment of a formal project team which will include representatives of the health board for service and administration together with officials from my Department. The project team will determine the type of service to be provided in the area and will, of course, be happy to consider any submissions received from interest groups. I am hopeful that the project team will have completed their deliberations before the end of the year. Following this a design team will be appointed and on completion of their work the project will go to tender.

Mrs. Owen

Well done.

Dr. O'Connell

I would expect the project to commence in 1993 and to take approximately one year to complete. I am pleased to have been involved in the provision of a new centre for Swords and I am sure the facilities will be used and enjoyed by people living in the community for many years to come. I understand that for five years requests were being made for this facility. When I heard the case last week I decided the project should go ahead.

The Dáil adjourned at 11.20 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 28 May 1992.