JOINT COMMITTEE ON THE ENVIRONMENT, HERITAGE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 16 Feb 2010

Business of Joint Committee.

Chairman

The first item on the agenda is the minutes of the meeting of 3 February 2010 which were circulated. Are they agreed? Agreed. Next is correspondence. No. 2010-732 is a newsletter from Globe International which we note. No. 733 is a newsletter from Europe's World, also noted. No. 734 is a report from the Joint Committee on Communications, Energy and Natural Resources on the procedure for nominating candidates to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and the RTE Authority, under the Broadcasting Act 2009. We note that. No. 735 is a list of decisions taken at the Joint Committee on European Scrutiny on 9 February 2010. We are not required to take any other action than to note it, which we do.

No. 736 is a letter from the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, in reply to letters of 22 September and 15 December 2009 from this committee. We requested the Minister to put a system in place whereby his Department would be automatically notified of all central government notices issuing to the local government sector, and that copies be sent from his Department to this committee. The Minister proposes to write to all other Departments to ask that these be sent directly to this committee. We note that reply and shall see whether the system will operate over time as intended.

No. 737 is a letter from the Heritage Council which offers to appear before the joint committee to discuss its experience of co-ordinating the response of various agencies to the floods. We shall note that when we consider our report on flooding.

No. 738 is a letter from the Minister of State, Deputy John Moloney, and the Canine Breeders of Ireland, enclosing another letter from a constituent requesting a meeting with the joint committee on the proposed legislation on dog breeding. We saw another such letter from Deputy O'Sullivan in a previous correspondence.

Deputy Phil Hogan

I do not know whether we can answer those questions. However, Committee Stage of the legislation is about to commence. Can we not discuss it then?

Chairman

We will discuss it on Committee Stage and tease out all issues raised in correspondence. We agree to tackle it in that way.

No. 739 is a letter from Longford County Council seeking a meeting on road repairs. That is a matter for the Joint Committee on Transport, not this one. No. 740 concerns the appointment of returning officers in further reply to queries raised by Deputy O'Sullivan. Has the Deputy had an opportunity to study the most recent replies? If not we shall hold it over until next week.

Deputy Christy O’Sullivan

I have not.

Chairman

There is further correspondence, just received. We shall hold it over until next week because the Deputy will have had an opportunity to study it.

No. 741 is from Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan, a follow-up on a request to visit Moore Street and allow relatives of the leaders of the 1916 Rising to meet the joint committee. I believe there was a presentation two weeks ago in the audio-visual room of the House on the development taking place in Moore Street. There are requests by residents to have the street designated as a national monument in view of its significance during the 1916 Rising. We shall hold this item over. I do not want to close it off until we verify matters. There may have been a separate opportunity to make a presentation in the House and I would not wish to duplicate work which was carried out already.

No. 742 is a letter from the local government auditor and the National Development Finance Agency, NDFA, regarding replies to our letter issued in connection with complaints from the Irish Waste Management Association. We wrote to both organisations either after a meeting in the House with Dublin City Council, or prior to that meeting, asking for clarification of the role of the NDFA in the Poolbeg incinerator facility. There are comprehensive replies. If members wish to take the matter further, that is well and good, but we can note the replies.

No. 743 is a letter from the Environmental Protection Agency. Following a request at our last meeting, we wrote to the EPA regarding problems with odours at a landfill dump at Kerdiffstown, County Kildare, near Naas. The EPA's reply states the matter has come only recently before the High Court and the correspondent is not able to supply any information on the matter at this stage. We shall keep it under review.

A number of circulars have been received by the committee, which were sent out to local authorities. They are: CS 01/2010, Civic structures conservation grants scheme; WP 05/2010, Landfill levy 2009 annual report and form EF14; LG Personnel, city and county managers (Remuneration) (No.2) Order; WP 057/2010, Landfill Levy 2009 annual report and form EF14; HPS 2, 3 and 4 of 2010, Housing expenditure, statistics and activities; WP 06/2010, Waste Management: (Registration of sewage sludge facility) Regulations 2010; LG Finance 2/2010, VAT on local authority services. Members may wish to follow that matter up individually. Also included are: S4/2009, Public Service Pension Reform; MR I/2010, Taxation of HSE Vehicles; a list of all circulars issued in December 2009; and BC 1/2010 on European Communities (Construction Products) Regulations, 1992.

With regard to statutory instruments, we have received notice of the following: 587/2009, Valuation Act 2001 (Fingal County Council) (Rate Limitation) Order 2009; 23/2010, Waste Management (Registration of Sewage Sludge Facility) Regulations 2010; and SI 550 of 2009 and 31 of 2010, Waste Management (Landfill Levy)(Amendment) Regulation 2009 and 2010.

Is it agreed we note all of these? The only circular about which I am curious is the one concerning taxation of HSE vehicles. Has anyone had an opportunity to look at that issue? Perhaps we should consider that before we move on.

Deputy Denis Naughten

While the Chairman is looking at that, I would like to raise an issue relating to a previous correspondence brought before the committee. This related to the follow-on meeting regarding the Shannon flooding, but happened before the issue became topical again. The committee had agreed that we would bring all of the agencies involved together for a single hearing. I ask that a time slot be made available for that at the first available opportunity. It would be good to have all the bodies here at one sitting to address the issues. It was clear to any of the members who attended a recent public meeting in Ballinasloe that there is significant passing of the buck with regard to flooding and nobody seems to be accountable.

Chairman

Any comments on that request? We will support that.

Deputy James Bannon

I support that proposal because there is significant public anger in the midlands at the way people have been treated by the Government since the serious flooding there prior to Christmas and following the frost and bad weather during the Christmas period. The same facilities should be afforded to the people of the midlands as have been afforded to the people of Cork. I would welcome a meeting. Perhaps we could invite the directors of services, the county managers and the mayors or chairpersons of the local authorities in the midlands to the meeting.

Chairman

We will agree on a date for that for as soon as is practical.

Deputy Denis Naughten

I will inform the clerk of the relevant groups.

Chairman

We discussed that last year.

Deputy Michael Fitzpatrick

What Deputy Naughten seeks is a little different from what Deputy Bannon seeks. Deputy Naughten wants the groups to come before the committee, but Deputy Bannon wants the officials to attend. Will we bring them all in on the same day?

Deputy Denis Naughten

It is crucial to understand there are a number of players involved with regard to the River Shannon, including the ESB, the OPW, Waterways Ireland, Bord na Móna, the IFA, Birdwatch Ireland and Dúchas. The difficulty currently is that each of the agencies passes the buck to the other. They each say it is not their fault that nothing happens with regard to maintenance on the river. What we want — this was agreed at the previous committee meeting — is that all the players will be brought in to one meeting so we can get a definitive answer. Then, if the ESB, for example, says an issue does not concern it but rather Waterways Ireland, we will have Waterways Ireland present to respond to that.

Chairman

We will need a big meeting room that day.

Deputy Denis Naughten

There are approximately seven or eight players involved. If we bring them all in on the same day, we can put the issue to rest.

Chairman

We had agreed to this before the current flooding issue.

Deputy James Bannon

Despite what Deputy Fitzpatrick said, there is no conflict of interest between Deputy Naughten and myself. There are 11 local authorities in the Shannon catchment area that have a vested interest in it.

Chairman

Is it that many?

Deputy James Bannon

That was an act of God when he made the world.

Chairman

We will agree to set a date for the meeting as soon as is practical. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Before we move away from correspondence, I want to read the circular that caught my eye, regarding taxation of HSE vehicles, to members. It states:

Under the National Treasury Management Agency (Delegation of Functions) Order 2009, the management of the Health Service Executive (HSE) personal injury and third party property damage claims was delegated to the State Claims Agency.

From a motor tax point of view this means that all HSE vehicles applying for motor tax no longer have an individual insurance policy. The National Vehicle and Driver File (NVDF) has been amended to include the "State Claims Agency" as an approved insurer. This insurer should be selected when processing these applications. The insurance expiry date should be entered as the 31st December of the current year.

The HSE official should show proper identification and also produce a letter of indemnity from the State Claims Agency when taxing a HSE vehicle.

I find this circular unusual. We will write to the Department and ask what other bodies have been included in similar circulars. I find it unusual that this circular relates only to HSE vehicles. There may be nothing wrong with this, but I would like the committee to be made aware of which other bodies would have the "State Claims Agency" as their car insurance company. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Deputy Michael Fitzpatrick

We made a visit to Carton House on 18 January 2010 and I was asked to report back to this committee. The same matter was discussed at the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment this afternoon. I have the report with me and will give it to the clerk and a further report will be sent from the clerk to the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Perhaps we could discuss this at our next meeting.

Chairman

Is that agreed? Agreed.

Sitting suspended at 3.46 p.m. and resumed at 3.47 p.m.