Air Pollution (Amendment) Bill 2025: Report and Final Stages Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-11 ============================================================ Maria Byrne (CC), Agricultural Panel I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, and the official from his Department. Before we commence, I remind Senators that a Senator may speak only once on Report Stage, except for the proposer of the amendment, who may reply to the discussion on the amendment. Each amendment must be seconded on Report Stage. Amendment No. 1 has been ruled out of order. Maria Byrne (CC), Agricultural Panel Amendment No. 2 arises out of committee proceedings. Chris Andrews (SF), Labour Panel I move amendment No. 2: In page 21, between lines 19 and 20, to insert the following: “Amendment of Principal Act - new section 20 . The Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following after section 47: “All-Island Air Pollution Co-operation and Taskforce 47A. (1) The Minister shall, within 3 months of the coming into operation ofthis section, establish a taskforce (the ‘Taskforce’) to advance co-operation towards an all island approach to air pollution on the island of Ireland. (2) The Taskforce shall include representatives of: (a) the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment; (b) the Environmental Protection Agency; (c) local authorities (including local authorities in the North of Ireland); (d) the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland; and (e) equivalent bodies in the North of Ireland. (3) The Minister shall invite the participation of relevant counterparts in the North of Ireland, including officials of the Executive in the North of Ireland and such cross border bodies as may be appropriate, for the purposes of— (a) information sharing and harmonisation of monitoring approaches, (b) coordinated public messaging on solid fuel burning and health impacts, (c) alignment of standards and enforcement approaches where feasible, and (d) development of joint initiatives in border regions. (4) The Taskforce shall, within 6 months of its establishment, prepare and submit to the Minister an All-Island Air Pollution Co-operation Plan setting out— (a) priority cross border air quality issues, (b) actions to improve interoperability of monitoring and data, (c) proposals for coordinated interventions, and (d) recommended legislative or policy changes. (5) The Minister shall lay the plan before each House of the Oireachtas within 1 month of receipt, together with a statement of intended actions. (6) The Taskforce shall meet at least four times per year and may establish sub groups for border regions or particular pollutants.”.”. Maria Byrne (CC), Agricultural Panel Does the Senator have a seconder? Chris Andrews (SF), Labour Panel No, I suspect I do not. Maria Byrne (CC), Agricultural Panel I am afraid we cannot discuss the amendment if it cannot be moved. I am sorry about that. Chris Andrews (SF), Labour Panel All right. Thank you. Maria Byrne (CC), Agricultural Panel Amendment No. 3 has been ruled out of order due to a potential charge on the Revenue. Maria Byrne (CC), Agricultural Panel Amendment No. 4 has been ruled out of order as well, I am afraid. Maria Byrne (CC), Agricultural Panel When is it proposed to take the next Stage? Lorraine Clifford-Lee (FF), Nominated by the Taoiseach Now. Maria Byrne (CC), Agricultural Panel Is that agreed? Agreed. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-11/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:37+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-11