The Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, Deputy Niall Collins, has a group in from his constituency.
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I welcome them all to the Public Gallery. They are here at the invitation of the Minister of State.
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I hope they enjoy their day here in Leinster House.
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Deputy Ryan O’Meara has another group. It is important to acknowledge them all as they look in on our democratic process.
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I am sorry for interrupting.
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The Minister need not start again.
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He can just start from where he left off.
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The Deputy strayed a little from the Bill.
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I welcome the Bill and commend the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, on his work in this area and that he has brought the Bill to Second Stage in the House for debate. I am sure it will be passed. The Bill is necessary but it is unbelievable that it has taken so long, albeit not under the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, to bring such a Bill to the House. It is a Bill that is fundamental in terms of development, safety, infrastructure, regulation, policing and so on. We need to examine how legislation is prepared and brought before the House and the greater efficiencies we can put in place to ensure that we can have a debate, tease out the amendments, if necessary, and deal efficiently with the business that needs to be concluded. The CRU does a lot of work and we are now asking it to do further policing of licences and all of the rest associated with the Bill. I wonder about the staff levels there and how they will be addressed to ensure that, in the context of what will be expected of them, they will have the appropriate number of staff who are the professionals needed to deal with all of these issues. As we put laws in place, there is no point in them being there if we will not ensure they are implemented and those who have applied for licences or engaged in this area will respond to the standards we are asking them to achieve. When the Minister says it will not cost more, we have to be realistic about this. There is no doubt it will cost more and the levies and moneys collected will not be sufficient to cover all of those costs. The cost of such an agency and the cost of implementing all of the legislation the agency will be required to do should be worked out. There is nothing like being prepared for the increases that may arise. Having said all of that and realising the importance of the work, I wonder about all of these quangos that are being set up. I understand the need for this and I am all for safety and development in this area but it really concerns me that we have so many quangos now that are outside of the reach of this House. When you ask a parliamentary question as to the status of one issue or another, the status of a company or the status of an application for a licence, you are told it is not within the remit of the Minister. That really has to stop. We are elected by the people. We are a Parliament with powers. We are introducing legislation through the Minister and we should take ownership of the legislation. There should be a way for a Member of this Parliament to intervene and ask a question in order to address an issue he or she might have. We have serious problems in relation to all of the other utilities and companies because they rarely engage in a really efficient and productive way to solve a problem or an issue. I will give the example of Irish Water. I will not go into detail but there is a difficulty in dealing with it. I could give the example of local government. It is impossible to hold it to account. In the introduction of this legislation, I would like to see more done in that area to ensure we can do our work when the difficulties start to fall out over the years. I also suggest that all these utility companies, particularly those that are providing energy to households where there is an elderly individual or couple or where there is a family that is marginalised, be asked to do more to address the issues that we bring to their attention. There is a cost of living issue. There is a cost of energy issue. There are issues for households that we need to address. While I might be straying a bit from the Bill, it is all about cost. It is all about how the companies will push their cost onto the consumer. The consumer has rights but I am afraid that in the guarding of those rights we fall short as a Parliament and as Members because we cannot directly hold them to account on individual cases. That is simply not at all satisfactory. It is not at all what the State should stand over. As a Republic, we should ensure the rights of our citizens. We should ensure the rights of our parliamentarians who engage on their behalf. Legislation almost prevents us from doing that. In terms of the cost, the price gouging and all of that, we need an immediate response to issues like that. Legislation like this should really be looking to the problems that may arise and that are there by way of example and ensure there is a way to address them. We are looking at energy and gas with this. There is also the issue of nuclear power, which was suggested here. The Minister should look at that. We need to have options. While we are talking about regulation, I wonder about the regulations we have been promised for wind farms. We have not received them yet. If we go back to 2013, they were debated in this House but we still have not received them. Why does it take so long to bring forward regulation or legislation that will govern development like this, not to stop or hold them up but to regulate them and acknowledge the rights of the communities they are affecting? In my constituency of Carlow-Kilkenny and the neighbouring constituency of Laois, huge wind farms are being constructed. I visited a number of these recently and I have to say a lot of them, in their numbers, are a blight on the landscape. Yet, we have no input. We want the regulation to make a level field for those who are applying for the wind farms and those who want to protect their homes, lives and communities from the negative side of the turbines. We talk about it here and, quite frankly, the Government has been very slow in acknowledging the difficulties communities have all over the country. The lack of regulation is actually driving a wedge in local communities between those who own land and want to develop it for wind farms and those who simply want no wind farms or want an input into where they are going. It is fair to ask that. You are not stopping it but, rather, asking for the regulation which has been promised since 2013 to be dealt with it. This brings us again to the parliamentary questions we ask here, whether they are about this piece of legislation or that regulation. You just get the same tripe set out in replies to parliamentary questions. The same bluff is expressed but the real issue is not dealt with. It creates a deal of anger and frustration for Members not to be able to have those issues addressed. While the legislation is needed, I ask the Minister about those safeguards. I ask him to look at the cost of that agency. I ask him, in his position as Minister, to take on board the views of this House, expressed by some, in relation to nuclear power, wind energy and the difficulties for the communities and applications that are there. I ask that these matters be addressed as soon as possible and for some sort of balance to be brought to how we do our business.
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The Deputy should not be making statements that may identify individuals who are not here to defend themselves.
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Deputy Lawless is really treading on unsafe territory. He cannot be drawing conclusions like he is doing-----
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-----regarding people who hold positions and might be identified by his remarks. I ask the Deputy to refrain from giving the type of detail that might lead to that position.
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You need to conclude, Deputy.
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No, it was five minutes and Deputy Healy-Rae is there behind you.
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There are 13 minutes left in the slot.
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Deputy Healy-Rae need not take it all.
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The Minister of State should conclude.
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