Air Pollution (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-28
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Timmy Dooley (FF), Clare

One thing for sure as long, as long as I have known the Senator, there is nobody in this House or outside that would ever countenance the word "stupid" in a sentence that might refer to her. She is showing herself to be a very able politician and legislator in the amendments that I have addressed on her behalf on a number of occasions here and in her speeches. That is a given.
I assure her that the intention of this legislation is to ensure that a certain element of the commercial sector is compliant with the law. What we are doing is giving enforcement powers to the local authority through regulation. The overarching legislation is there in terms of the clean air. It goes back to 1987. We are amending it to give powers to the local authority to address what we see as the activities of certain rogue operators in production, transportation and sale and supply of materials. That is all we are trying to do here. The primary legislation has been around since 1987.
I have been open with Senators that it provides that a Minister might in extreme circumstances be required to address something that has happened at local level, where certain events took place and there were issues, and has the powers to act in relation to directing homeowners. That is already there. The only necessity for this is to address the sale and supply. There is nothing in regulations that will emanate from this. There is nothing new in the legislation that will in any way give anyone powers to misinterpret and go after the homeowner. The regulations are very clear regarding who can get a fixed penalty notice. The word "householder" is not included in it. It is very clear that it is production, transportation and sale and supply of materials that were excluded previously.
I can do no more than give the Senator that assurance. In my reading of it, we have to look at what the intention is. There is no capacity for somebody to extrapolate that we target the homeowner when the regulation is clear that it is the producer, transportation and sale and supply of materials. I can give the Senator everything she is asking for in that regard by way of assurance.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-01-28/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:33+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-28