I thank Deputy Daly for raising this issue today. I am answering on behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. This allows me the opportunity to outline the position in respect of Irish Water's responsibility on this matter. The Water Services Acts 2007 to 2017 set out the arrangements in place for the delivery of water and wastewater services by Irish Water, and for the scrutiny and oversight provisions that apply in respect of these arrangements. As the Deputy will …

I can furnish this to the Deputy. I apologise; I had meant to have them.

I thank the Deputy for the follow-on remarks on the provision of water treatment facilities in County Kerry. I assure him the Government is committed to ensuring substantial funding is provided to Irish Water, as I outlined in my response. The programme for Government commits to funding Irish Water's capital investment plan for water and wastewater infrastructure on a multi-annual basis. This is very important because we know that in the past, particularly for a local authorities and others, having a deadline where…

I welcome the opportunity to present the Planning and Development Act 2000 (Exempted Development) (Number 2) Regulations 2022 to Senators. I do so in place of the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, who unfortunately could not attend. The proposed regulations are aimed at amending the provisions in the Planning and Development Regulations 2001 concerning development that is exempt from the requirement to obtain planning permission. Under the planning Acts, each House of the Oireachtas is required to approve draf…

I have the honour to make the closing intervention on behalf of the Government to this important debate. We have been reminded here today of the importance of the Constitution as the expression of our values. The preamble of Bunreacht na h-Éireann speaks of "due observance of Prudence, Justice and Charity" and of Ireland striving so that "concord" can be "established with other nations". We have differences of opinion - some of these were expressed here today - but I believe we are all in agreement with those funda…

I thank the Senators for contributing to this debate. I will focus on the individual points that have been made. The points made by Senator Cummins are valid. We all share his frustration at the length of time some of these processes can take for the delivering of new health facilities and so on, but that is outside the scope of what we are doing with this Bill. While this a planning issue and a procedure being brought through the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, it is being done on the advice …

It is a great honour for me to be in the Seanad and to have the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I thank my colleagues in Fine Gael, in particular Senators Seery Kearney and Dolan, for the work and effort that went into this motion. I also acknowledge the contributions from all parties and none across the House. The contributions I have listened to over the past number of hours have clearly demonstrated that the views of this House are very much representative of the reaction of the Irish people. That has …

I thank Members for being here today and for their level of engagement on this topic. It is my first time to address this issue in the Seanad. I am doing so in place of the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, and the Minister of State, Senator Hackett. I am aware of the concerns which have been articulated by Senators. I would like to acknowledge the points made by Senators Boyhan, Lombard, Boylan, Gavan, Daly and Burke. I read a previous debate in the House on this matter before I took this debate today. The Senators ar…

I thank Members for the many and varied points they made. Senator Gavan asked a couple of specific questions. I go back to his earlier statement that he is not asking to negotiate in this room. I will not negotiate in this room; I do not have the mandate to do that. I will bring the points raised in this forum back to the Minister. I accept the points made about trust, communication, frustration and concern that have been well articulated by Senators. A point raised by a number of Members, including Senators Burke,…

I will start with Senator Burke's point. I was responding to his question about where the three to five year period came from. That is the general principle. It is about identifying the profitability of the company. To use ten years, it would need to be proven that the business had a cyclical nature. It is about trying to get away from one set year that might have been a bad year. Three years would normally give a fairly good mix of good, bad or medium years. Five years is a bigger spread and is the time period pro…

Our job here is to look at that legislation and see how we do that. To respond to Senator Boylan, part of my earlier response was that Department officials have a good knowledge of these farms because of their inspection system down through the years. I am not familiar with the exact role Grant Thornton played in that in respect of visits, but we are dealing with Department officials who know these farms well and who have regularly visited them down through the years.

To respond to Senator Gavan, that is no problem. The point I made when the Senator stepped out was that I had written out three specific sentences he wants me to put on the record of the House. However, I brought the debate back to the Senator's initial contribution, in which he said he was not asking anyone in this room to negotiate. The level of detail he is talking about, to my mind, constitutes negotiating. I will not get into that level of negotiating here tonight. I do not believe that is what primary legisla…

Senator Gavan and I are splitting hairs somewhat. His interpretation of negotiation and mine are somewhat different. He does not think what he says involves negotiation; I think it does. I have made my view on that clear enough. We can keep talking about it but I will not get into that level of detail here tonight. As for the draft regulations, I have committed to bringing to the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, the Senators' request to see the draft regulations and that he would furnish them. Senator Boyhan talked ab…

I thank Senators Boylan and Moynihan for the points they raised regarding amendment No. 7 and, by extension, amendment No. 8. The definitions outlined in amendments Nos. 7a and 7b, and amendments Nos. 8a and 8b remove the provision to create narrow strips of native trees. Creating these areas in undisturbed water setbacks can be used to deliver meaningful ecosystem services that protect and enhance water quality and aquatic ecosystems. The creation of these permanent semi-natural landscape features alongside stream…

Amendments Nos. 15 and 15a are being addressed together as they both relate to the provision of statistics at local electoral area. My Department provides very comprehensive forestry statistics on a weekly basis through the forestry dashboard. Information is provided on afforestation, roading and felling. Monthly statistics are also provided on a broader range of statistics that are available on the Department's website. At the end of each year, comprehensive statistical information is provided on a county basis in…

Amendments Nos. 16 and 27 are being addressed together as they both propose to insert a requirement that any regulation to introduce a scheme will be laid before and agreed by both Houses of the Oireachtas. My Department manages a wide range of schemes that provide support for landowners. These schemes are introduced in a manner which engages with stakeholders across the sector and the wider public. In advance of the development of this scheme, the Department will be undertaking an SEA, as I said earlier. This incl…

The Department has long-established procedures in place for taking into consideration the level of forest cover adjacent to domestic dwellings. Set-back distances are most critical when a building is surrounded by forests. In the general afforestation scheme, provisions are made for tree planting adjacent to buildings through the scheme requirements. For example, our existing requirements in our afforestation scheme state that the set-back distance from dwelling houses and associated buildings is 60 m, or 30 m wher…

As the Senator outlined, the amendment seeks to exclude the planting of native trees on peat soils. I recognise that climate change and other legacy issues have been created by the afforestation of peat soils in the past. However, we have examples of woodlands, such as birch, naturally occurring on peat soils. The types of soil to be afforested will be given full consideration during the strategic environmental assessment and appropriate assessment. The Land Types for Afforestation document sets out the potential e…

The amendment proposes to insert the native Irish or Burren pine on the list of native tree species. I take it that the Senator is referring to the small population of Scots pine in the Rock Forest in County Clare, which is said to be derived from the original native Scots pine trees. While people refer to these tress as native Irish or Burren pine, these trees are still considered Scots pine and will, therefore, be eligible to be considered for inclusion in any future scheme aimed at planting native tree areas.

I thank the Senator for the points that he has raised. With regard to amendments No. 13 and 30, the list of native tree species detailed in section 2 of the Schedule includes all native tree species and for that reason also includes the yew species. There are a small number of naturally occurring yew forests in Ireland, which are a protected habitat type and, therefore, the inclusion of the yew in any scheme will need to be carefully considered to ensure that the integrity of the existing new forests are not compro…