I thank the Minister of State for very comprehensively outlining what is contained in this Bill. I commend him, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and their officials on their work in respect of this matter.

As the Minister of State outlined, the Bill aims to stimulate sustainable development and sustainable economic activity within the licensing system that is designed to protect our environment. We all want to transition to a more sustainable economy. As a result, we need a legislative framework to allow for that to happen in a timely fashion. The Minister of State outlined the timeframes contained within the Bill, which are very appropriate. They are not rushed. They are appropriate in the context of investing in businesses. I commend the Minister of State, and I will be supporting the Bill.

That was a nice exposition of the thrust of the Bill. I will address a couple of issues that have been raised.

There is a level of urgency in looking at this. I want to advert to the incidence of a serious and major fish kill in Waterford and Cork last summer. Something like 40,000 fish were killed in the River Blackwater. As far as I know, to this day, nobody has been found culpable and, as a result, nobody has been taken to task over it. The matter now seems to be shrinking away into oblivion as an unsolved crime, and it was a crime. The livelihoods of an awful lot of people were put at risk. It is not just that. For one reason or another, a beautiful and pristine river was the recipient of a lot of toxic substances over a few days. The way this was addressed leaves me and many others with a feeling of unease. From what I gather, by the time the evidence was being addressed, much of it had gone as a result of the natural flow of the river. At this stage, it is likely that nothing will ever be done about the perpetrators of this crime against the natural beauty and integrity of that particular river and the surrounding basin. My question is very simple. Is there anything in this Bill that will sharpen our practice? If a major fish kill like that happens and it all just disappears under some kind of marine carpet, it looks like our existing legislation to address such matters is not fit for purpose. The next logical question is whether there is anything in the Bill as outlined that will give the legislation sufficient teeth to address its inherent weaknesses in respect of this issue and other incidents.

Section 30 proposes two new sections to the circular economy Act allowing for a public body to be designated for the purpose of preparing green public procurement guidance. That is very good. However, it is stated that public bodies - I presume that includes local authorities, one of which I was a member of for over 20 years - will be required to outline in an annual report each procurement of goods, services or works in the previous calendar year where relevant green public procurement criteria were not integrated into the procurement process and explain the reasons why. I can imagine that will not get a lot of traction with the people in the local authorities. In fact, I would say it will generate a lot of stubborn digging in of heels. That is not a reason not to include it but, as it is outlined, it seems to be a sort of fait accompli to be issued to the local authorities.

I suggest that the Minister and his team engage with the local authorities prior to introducing this to see if something might come up that would not drive the officials and councillors in local authorities simply cracked. I have enough experience of council chambers at this stage to know that the whole green argument is on a knife edge at the moment. There is a continual battle in progressing the green arguments, which we all appreciate and admit are necessary. When it comes to brass tacks and comes down to the bottom line in councils, you will find that a lot of councillors will say that this is mad or insane. Unless there is consultation on things like this, you are going to stir up the proverbial hornets' nest. I do not think that is advisable as regards progressing the green agenda.

There is another matter I wish to raise. I cannot find it now in looking back over the Minister of State's remarks. It has to do with enforcement. It might have been about beefing up enforcement. That is a very good. We have a great ability to produce cogent and decent legislation in this country, at both local and national level, but, from a lifetime spent in public representation, I notice there is a ritual falling-down on the whole idea of enforcement, whether we are talking about scooters, fish kills, waste management, illegal dumping or on-the-spot fines.

We can have all the on-the-spot fines summary convictions or whatever we want to introduce as a deterrent, but unless the money is invested in enforcement, we might as well be ag séideadh in aghaidh na gaoithe because it will not get anything.

In Waterford, having CCTV to monitor litter black spots has been on the agenda and a current topic in council meetings for a decade. At this stage. we may have got a few bob down in Waterford to have a roving CCTV that barely scratches the surface. Any council executive will say that the number of convictions there have been under waste management or litter legislation is abysmally small, which tells its own story. We are very good at spouting the legal points and the desiderata, the things that need to be done, but when it comes down to brass tacks there is a problem with producing the finances to send out the enforcement officers, particularly at weekends. The difficulty of dog fouling in coastal counties does not get addressed because very often it is hard to get the dog wardens out at weekends. If we want to clean up beaches and have a pristine neighbourhood, we should be financing it. That is something the Minister needs to address in consultation with local authority executives and councillors.

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, to Seanad Éireann. I thank him, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and the Department for bringing forward this important Bill. I am a member of the joint committee on the environment, where these matters have been discussed at length. Many of the points that have been raised by the Minister of State and in contributions by fellow Senators will be addressed by the Bill if it passes. It is a practical step to modernise and streamline licensing processes without weakening environmental safeguards. It provides greater certainty and predictability in decision-making timelines for industrial emissions, integrated pollution control and waste licences. It also addresses the long-standing delays that have hindered investment in key sectors, as the Minister of State mentioned, such as energy, renewables and low-carbon industries, as well as pharma, food, waste management and intensive agriculture.

IBEC has welcomed this pragmatic Bill, which will be practical both for our environmental credentials and our ambitions to become a low-carbon green economy while also still being an attractive location for investment. That is the balance that this Bill brings. It gives certainty to the private sector while also being strong on our green ambitions. It supports Ireland's climate and circular economy and sustainable development goals by enabling faster and proportionate regulation. I believe it is measured, and business and environmentally friendly. It cuts delays, boosts competitiveness and supports sustainable growth. I urge colleagues to support the Bill.

The Minister of State is welcome. I want to approach the Bill from the perspective of rural areas and agricultural communities because that is where its consequences will be most keenly felt. Sinn Féin has always been clear, and my colleague Deputy Pa Daly has repeatedly stated, that strong environmental protection and climate action depend on public trust. That trust collapses when decision-making becomes centralised, rushed or opaque. The Bill is presented as technical and procedural but for communities living beside waste facilities, large anaerobic digestion plants or industrial agri-processing sites, procedure is substance.

Sinn Féin has consistently warned against the quiet erosion of independent regulation. This Bill places significant powers for the appointment and removal of senior EPA leadership in the hands of the Minister, with a removal threshold described as necessary or desirable. That is not a narrow test and it is not a high bar. While it may never be abused, legislation must be judged on the powers it creates and not the intentions of the Minister of the day. For those in rural areas, the EPA is often the only counterbalance when communities raise concerns about water quality impacts, odour and traffic from anaerobic digestion plants, pollution in already stretched catchments, and threats to fisheries and biodiversity. If confidence in the EPA's independence is weakened, community opposition hardens, legal challenges increase and everyone loses, including farmers and developers who want certainty.

Emergencies must never become a planning shortcut. This Bill expands powers to exempt certain projects from environmental impact assessments and to curtail normal participation procedures in so-called exceptional circumstances. Rural areas already host a disproportionate share of energy infrastructure, waste treatment facilities, grid developments and large-scale anaerobic digestion plants. If these emergency powers are used loosely, particularly for energy or waste infrastructure, communities will rightly fear that consultation is being treated as an inconvenience rather than a democratic necessity. That approach has failed before and we cannot allow these mistakes to happen in the future.

Anaerobic digestion is often cited as a win-win for climate and farming, and it can be when it is farmer-led, co-operative and properly scaled. However, we need to caution against allowing industrial-scale facilities to be imposed on rural areas without consent, particularly where traffic increases through small villages, digestate spreading threatens water quality or local farmers are left managing the downstream impacts. This Bill could significantly increase licensing for large anaerobic digestion plants. Speed may suit the investors but without strong safeguards it risks creating exactly the kind of rural backlash we have seen in the waste sector before, where communities are told the decision has already been made. That is not just transition; it is displacement.

There is potential in the green public procurement provision, particularly for local food producers, short supply chains and lower emission farming systems. Policy designed for corporations can unintentionally exclude family farms and rural SMEs. If green criteria become overly complex, expensive or administratively burdensome, smaller producers will be locked out while large operators will dominate, undermining rural communities rather than strengthening them. Climate action must be accessible and not exclusionary. Strengthening enforcement powers is not in itself objectionable, but Sinn Féin has repeatedly raised concerns that environmental enforcement must be proportionate and even-handed. Too often, small operators face swift action, while action against large polluters is delayed through legal processes and communities are left waiting for meaningful protection. Environmental law must protect people and ecosystems and not simply penalise those with the least capacity to defend themselves.

The Bill will shape environmental governance for years to come. It has to be straightforward. We need to support climate action, renewable energy and sustainable agriculture. We do not need to centralise power away from communities, weaken regulatory independence, use emergency language to bypass democratic participation or treat rural areas as a convenient location for infrastructure that others do not want. If Government wants buy-in for climate action, it must legislate for transparency, independence and genuine community consent. Without that, there will be no just transition, only deeper division.

I welcome the provision for faster licensing, which is very slow in this country, but we also need timelines put in place.

Without timeframes and quicker licensing, everything seems to drag on for so long. The right change we want does not seem to come into play quickly. We are talking about it from generation to generation but nothing happens.

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I welcome the Bill.

Section 10 amends section 82D of the Environmental Protection Agency Act. It is stated that the agency, when considering applications in emergency circumstances, shall do so in a manner consistent with the objectives of section 15(1) of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 to the extent that it considers it practicable, taking account of the emergency nature of the applications. Like my colleague, I believe there is an issue around exceptional circumstances and the emergency nature of applications. This is something I look forward to debating when we get to Committee Stage. However, I welcome elements of the Bill that strengthen the powers and functionality of the EPA.

A point was raised on the Blackwater fish kill. To the best of my knowledge, the EPA has never revoked an integration pollution control licence for a facility. It is pretty clear that a facility was at the core of the Blackwater problem. It is vital to strengthen the EPA's role in such incidents in terms of accountability and prosecution.

Section 12 covers provisions on the transboundary convention where an activity is likely to have transboundary effects on a state outside the EU. I welcome that. We will have a scheduled debate on Committee Stage on a public accounts report of the Westminster Government on the Sellafield reprocessing facility. The transboundary consultation was inadequate in relation to that. While I welcome the provision in this Bill, we need our near neighbours to ensure proper and adequate consultation, particularly on the nuclear industry in the UK. There should also be adequate consultation on the report, which is deeply worrying in respect of the activities of the reprocessing plant.

I want to refer specifically to the issues concerning green public procurement. I recall that during John Gormley's time in the Custom House, we were having long conversations about green public procurement. That is a long time ago but I welcome the fact that we are now moving significantly into this space and considering local authorities and other public bodies that are significant purchasers of goods and services. I remember being involved with issues concerning ground granulated blast furnace slag, which is a low-carbon cement, and also Forest Stewardship Council timber, Fairtrade goods and bioplastics. All these have huge potential to make a positive impact on the environment and should be the default in using the purchasing power of public bodies. In procurement strategies and tendering for projects, we should be moving into the space of ethical goods and goods that are low carbon where possible. I welcome the elements of the Bill in this regard.

The last point I want to make is on recycling in general and the Minister of State's responsibility for the circular economy. We really should be doing a lot more in Ireland. We export most of our waste and simply do not have the necessary facilities here. We do not have paper mills or metal recycling. Very little plastic recycling is taking place here. We do not have the digestion facilities needed for an ambitious biomethane strategy or the electrolysers for a hydrogen strategy.

Applying for permission and an EPA licence has meant going into a process with no end in sight. It can take any amount of time to win permits. The Planning and Development Act 2024 introduced guaranteed decision-making times for An Coimisiún Pleanála. This Bill seeks to bring in guaranteed decision-making timelines for EPA licences, which I welcome.

The Bill went through pre-legislative scrutiny but has since been changed. The Minister removed the power granted to him in the Bill to impose incremental levies like the plastic bag levy on producers rather than retailers. This was done because the Minister wanted to avoid the future possibility of collecting a disposable coffee cup levy. I was looking at a question by Cathal Haughey of Fingal County Council on 8 December and the response from David Storey, director of environment, expressing disappointment that places like Fingal and Killarney, where the introduction of the latte levy into legislation would be of real benefit, have been advised by the Department that there is a delay in the introduction of the levy.

Irish Business Against Litter has reported a 60% fall in bottle and can litter in our towns since the deposit return scheme came in. This is why the bottles and cans are mostly gone. The coffee cups are really visible, however. We all know that. Irish Business Against Litter's report this year was crystal clear. It states:

Coffee cups remained one of the most commonly found forms of litter and was evident in one fifth of all sites surveyed. "A real disappointment in a generally positive year has been the likely collapse of reusable coffee cup schemes in towns such as Killarney," says Mr Horgan. "It is apparent that such schemes will only work with statutory backing. As our data today bears out, without Government intervention coffee cups will remain an unsightly and entirely unnecessary blot on the landscape across our towns. The prevarication from Government on the issue is striking – a levy was promised all of four years ago – and sends out a worrying signal. Weaning ourselves off single-use coffee cups should not be such a big deal."

I ask the Minister to retain the power to place a levy on producers, even if he does not use it without consulting retailers and cafés first. I am aware that the Department is talking about carrying out a regulatory impact assessment, but this was already carried out in 2022 and is published on its website. The cup levy was made policy not by the Green Party but by a Fine Gael Minister, the Minister of State's former colleague Richard Bruton, in 2019.

The deposit return scheme has been a huge success, increasing recycling from 49% to 91% and making our towns and beaches cleaner. However, now there is a problem with enforcement. Some retailers and takeaway food outlets have been selling cans without the Re-turn logo, as people discover when they are not accepted at the supermarket when they go to return them. Local authorities say they need the powers to issue fixed-penalty notices for selling these products without the Re-turn logos. It is important that enforcement be followed up.

I will be tabling amendments on Committee Stage to restore the power of the Minister to place a levy on producers rather than retailers and to allow for fixed-penalty notices for takeaway outlets selling cans without the Re-turn logo. These are two important provisions that need to be included in the Bill. However, I welcome the introduction of the Bill and look forward to engagement on Committee Stage.

The Minister of State is most welcome to Seanad Éireann this evening. I will be supporting this legislation. I want to focus specifically on the part of it that deals with amending the litter Act. Unfortunately, as in many Senators' counties, County Wexford has a serious issue with illegal dumping. It is a scourge. The county is absolutely blessed with a beautiful coastline, immaculate mountain ranges and scenic beauty throughout. Unfortunately, though, people take it upon themselves to dump illegally. Figures just released by Wexford County Council for 2025 show 2,441 incidents were reported to it. This means an enormous cost to the taxpayer in that the council has to send out crews to remove the illegally dumped material and take it to be recycled or disposed of. Unfortunately, the numbers are continuing to rise. In fact, in January 2026, which was a short two weeks ago, 147 phone calls were made to Wexford County Council to report illegal dumping. There are examples of people who, when disposing of their Christmas trees, decided to throw all the Christmas gifts out on the side of the road somewhere in rural County Wexford.

I am aware that this legislation will amend the Litter Pollution Act to allow judges to convict people rather than having defendants seek to empanel juries or have trials by jury. This is a welcome step but I encourage the Minister of State to go further. County councils should be mandated to publish the names of individuals convicted of dumping. Last year, Wexford County Council went to the courts and managed to secure a number of litter fines. In fact, there were 11 litter convictions in the past six months. Those prosecutions are to be welcomed but the data do not show the names of the people. If you are found guilty of dumping in rural Ireland, your name should be published.

The public across Ireland should be able to see exactly who these people are. In fact, the current fines, with a maximum on-the-spot fine of €150 and by court conviction €3,000, are not substantial enough. They are not sufficient to deter someone from taking it on themselves to load up a van, fill it with their neighbour's rubbish, drive out to a rural back lane, tip it out and abandon it there. Those fines need to be increased. The category of the offence for illegal dumping should be increased as well as the fines. There should be an extra penalty for dumping in a special area of conservation, such as a river or a beach. The penalty should be exacerbated for polluting these significant waterways that we have. There is not a week that goes without my constituency office being contacted by a constituent from somewhere in Wexford to say that there are black bags of rubbish floating in such a river and would someone from the council go out and collect it.

We have to get to grips with this issue and tough on this issue. The fines introduced in 1997 are not sufficient. When this legislation moves forward through the Seanad, I encourage the Minister of State to take the opportunity to increase those fines. In particular, he should look at increasing the penalties and introducing a name and shame policy. There should be no issues with it. If you are convicted of murder or a serious assault, your name is reported in the papers. There should be no impediment to local authorities naming and shaming individuals convicted of illegal dumping. This issue should be taken substantially more seriously. This is an issue for every Member in this Chamber because they get the same phonecalls that I get. The cost to the taxpayer is continuing to rise year on year and we have to get to grips with it.

I thank all the Senators for their valuable contributions. They have been very helpful. It was a good opportunity to discuss this before it moves to Committee Stage. I welcome the broad support I have received on this Bill.

As I said earlier, it is important to reflect what we hear on the ground with regard to the time it takes for decisions to be made, not just for large scale developments, but also for minor proposed changes to an installation that currently requires a full licence review. In our current climate, that is not practical or sufficient and it needs to change. This Bill addresses the problematic issues through improving the legislation and that is central to what we are trying to achieve. It also protects the rights of everyone to participate in that licence application because there is nothing in this Bill that reduces the EPA's independence and that cannot be stressed enough. We want to ensure that the exemptions are transposed from EU law. That is the transposition from the environmental impact assessment directive and that mirrors what we have within our extensive planning process. We should not have one without the other. Very strict guidelines will be put in place and they will not affect or replace any of our planning laws. We have done extensive work in the past year or two and I acknowledge Senator Noonan's work on the Planning and Development Act. It is the third largest piece of legislation to have gone through both Houses of the Oireachtas. It is important and, in one sense, this Bill does not dilute our obligations to that. There is transparency, fairness and opportunities for people to have their say. It is really important that prescribing timelines for proposed determinations in secondary legislation provide the necessary flexibility so that we ensure that we can achieve even shorter timelines as agreed.

Senator Conway made reference to the fish kill incident in the River Blackwater. I am sure that we all agree in this House that it was significant and deeply regrettable. Three inspection teams were deployed to the regulated sites within an hour of the notification. That demonstrates the EPA's example and that it did react. However, as the Senator said earlier, the evidence found that there was no link to any of the industrial sites in close proximity. The report that investigated this significant incident recommended that emergencies like the one in County Cork require a greater inter-agency approach in how we share information, communicate and respond. A new protocol will be put in place by quarter 1 of this year. That is an important learning from what that event presented because still not having a root cause leads to much speculation. There are lessons for everyone with regard to how the root cause of such a kill could not be found. It left everyone dismayed.

The protection of the environment remains paramount within this legislation. Senator Noonan mentioned the latte levy. We are working towards the publication of the second revision of the circular economy strategy. That will go to Cabinet next week. I hope that we will continue to make substantial improvements with regard to our reuse and recycling to ensure that materials are in circulation for a lot longer. With regard to the latte levy and the reduction of single-use cups, we want to continue to make a real impact on the usage of single-use cups. There are too many in circulation. The Oireachtas took a lead on the bring-your-own-cup initiative. We need to see more of that in our public buildings, cafes and restaurants. Anyone sitting in should be afforded the use of a reusable cup rather than a single-use cup. It is a practical measure. We need to look at the infrastructure and not just a national levy. I spoke to people in Killarney and have engaged extensively on this issue. We are reviewing it with the hope that we can make substantial inroads. We have seen the benefits of the deposit return scheme for plastic bottles and aluminium cans and we want do to more. I will work with Senator Noonan on that.

In conclusion, I acknowledge the broad support for this Bill. With regard to Senator Byrne's comments around anti-dumping initiatives. It is an important issue. Local authorities are responsible for how they manage, police and enforce it. As a Government, we have supported them with funding for mobile CCTV and other deterrents and enforcement measures. We will continue to do that. I will take Senator Byrne's suggestion to increase fines to act as an even greater deterrent back to the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and his officials.

I thank the Members for their time. I look forward to moving this Bill to Committee Stage.

When is it proposed to take Committee Stage?

Next Tuesday.

Is that agreed? Agreed.