Jennifer Whitmore
Wicklow · Social Democrats · Ireland
“The Minister for justice recently brought in reforms for the criminal justice legal aid system. While we all recognise that there is a need for reform within the system, the reforms that the Minister has brought in are ill-considered, not backed up by data or evidence and have led to absolute chaos in the courts system.”
“Hundreds of jurors were recently told that their services were no longer required. Many vulnerable people in the legal system are falling through gaps.”
“A hosepipe ban will come into force in a number of counties on the east coast from tomorrow. I completely understand that because we are seeing record temperatures and are in the middle of dealing with the climate crisis and climate change.”
“In 2024, 1,000 incidents of antisocial behaviour were recorded on Dublin Bus. That was nearly double the figure recorded just a few years earlier. Unfortunately, this is not just limited to Dublin. We are also seeing instances of this in my constituency, Wicklow, on Go-Ahead services.”
“More than 1,000 people died in Spain due to heat-related causes in June of this year alone. By early July, Spain had 14 major forest fires and 50,000 ha of land had been burned. Across Europe, more than 10,000 excess deaths associated with the recent heatwave were recorded in a single week. These warnings have to be taken seriously.”
“As a family member, you wonder if the person is getting care, whether they are being fed properly and whether they are being looked after. There is no visibility. There is a dementia care home in Shankill that a lot of people from my constituency use, St. Joseph's. It is incredible. I visited it recently.”
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“My fear is that if the privately owned facility gets the go ahead, the Government will quietly kick to touch the publicly owned one and instead rely on that privately owned one. It is really important the Minister is clear on this.”
“I understand the Minister cannot reach into specific planning applications, but what he can do, and the Government has a responsibility to do, is provide clear policy positions on energy growth, development and security in this country. The Minister has already done it in relation to publicly owned LNG. I am asking - and this would be in line with the climate Act - that the Minister puts forward a clear policy position to say the only LNG facility the Government will consider appropriate is a publicly owned one and that there should not be any consideration or development of privately owned LNG facilities in Ireland. The reality is, if a privately owned LNG facility is established, there is no way that any Government could justify spending nearly €1 billion on a publicly owned one.”
“That was the kind of direction An Coimisiún Pleanála was looking for. It will be making its decision on this in early 2026. Will the Minister please provide that guidance?”
“As the Minister will be aware, An Coimisiún Pleanála asked for guidance specifically on commercial LNG facilities and storage from him. His response to that letter and that request for guidance did not mention commercial at all. He did not actually provide a clear answer to the board, and he essentially gave the same response as he has just given to me, but that is not the same as giving a clear policy direction. The previous Government gave a clear policy direction on fracked gas. That is no longer in place. What I am looking for, and I hope the Government will do in recognition of the fact that it wants us to move away from fossil fuels, is a clear policy direction from the Minister to say that private commercial LNG facilities is not a policy the Government wants implemented in Ireland.”
“It is incredible that an entity can be in non-compliance for the majority of its licence period with no enforcement actions undertaken by the EPA other than an €11,000 fine. For a company that generates a profit in excess of €200 million, €11,000 is a drop in the ocean. It will make no difference. Can the Minister of State please look into the EPA's enforcement processes and ensure that when entities are in non-compliance they are held accountable?”
“What also became apparent during those discussions following that fish kill is that there are major gaps in the EPA enforcement programme. The agency has a national priority sites register, which has the poorest performing sites on it. For example, it monitors 900 sites and four are currently on that list, so they really are the poorest performing sites and North Cork Creameries is one of them. North Cork Creameries received its licence in 2019. It has been on the national priority list for the EPA in quarter 3 in 2021, quarters 2,3 and 4 in 2022, all of 2023, all of 2024 and two quarters in 2025. Despite all those compliance issues, the EPA has not suspended the creamery's licence yet.”
“What was clear from investigating this was that all the different agencies were working in their own silos. There was little overlap between them. Unfortunately, the delays that happened allowed for that contaminant to wash through the system before any investigations could happen.”
“I thank the Minister of State very much. I visited the site with Deputy Quaide and spoke to many of the anglers there. It was a devastating fish kill. It was probably way more than 40,000 fish, such as trout, that were killed. The problem is that once those fish are gone, they are gone. Their reproduction capacity is gone. It will take more than ten years to get the river back to a standard and that will not naturally happen either. There has to be serious management and monitoring of the river because there are invasive species in it and they may now become the dominant species there. It is important issue that needs to be taken care. I welcome the interagency group. It is important that protocol is put in place immediately or as soon as possible.”
“I am asking this question on behalf of Deputy Liam Quaide. Has the Minister of State's attention has been drawn to the large-scale fish kill mortalities that occurred on the River Blackwater in County Cork in August 2025; the actions he will take to prevent similar future occurrences; and if he will make a statement on the matter?”
“In 2020, the average electricity bill was €976. It is currently €1,877. There is no way that is justifiable, even considering the special circumstances that Ireland faces and considering what happened in Ukraine. People are paying twice what they were paying five years ago and, as I said, the price that the companies are paying for wholesale energy is going down. It is now 75% lower than in 2022. Those savings should be passed on to customers and those companies are not doing it. It has been recommended by the Government's own affordability agency that the energy regulator conduct an investigation into price gouging by those energy companies. Will the Minister direct the energy regulator to put in place that investigation into price gouging by those large retailers and the energy companies?”
“Did the Minister speak to these companies about price gouging and about them actually reducing their prices, not helping people pay their extortionate prices but reducing the prices for ordinary families across the country?”
“We are all aware that electricity prices are crushing many families across the country at the moment. They are so high. We have among the highest electricity prices in Europe. Recently we were told by the International Energy Agency that our retail prices are three times higher than our wholesale prices. The savings the energy companies are making on wholesale energy are not being passed through to customers. We are seeing continual rises from the companies of between €120 to €220 on average bills, and that is despite their own costs going down. There is a question as to whether these companies are gouging customers. Indeed, the Government's interim report, the affordability report, made a recommendation that the CRU investigate price gouging by these companies.”
“I ask the Minister of State to talk specifically to the CRU about the points I have raised because I think they are important.”
“I have sent two or three emails to the CRU during the past six weeks asking for that information but it is not being provided. Obviously, the CRU is not listening to me. I ask the Minister of State to raise this issue with it because it is the body that is meant to be protecting customers. There is a lot here. We will have an opportunity to discuss this important legislation over the coming days. There needs to be a short-term focus on how we can protect people this winter if there are more storms, how we can get ready and how households will be resilient not just to price increases but also to any disturbances because of storms coming in. It is really important but we will have further opportunities to debate that.”
“It is crazy that the CRU has not published the most recent data and that we are still working from the June figures. When CRU representatives came to the committee meeting six weeks ago, I asked them what the latest figures for arrears were, but they could not tell me. They said they would publish them shortly and still have not done so. That information should have been available in the context of last month's budget. When the Minister of State is making policy decisions, he needs to know how many people are in arrears and how many the numbers are going up by each month. The Minister of State needs to have that information to hand because otherwise he will not be able to identify the scale of the problem. Again, the CRU is responsible for this.”
“It has not been amended at all to reflect the reality that the €200 it is putting the bills up by every year is not down to grid improvements, security of supply issues or network charges. Energia is putting the price up because it is gouging. It will blame the Government, and investment in the grid, for doing this. I ask the Minister of State to raise this matter. I have serious concerns that the CRU has not addressed that issue after six weeks. It is the CRU's job to protect customers and to ensure there is transparency in the information provided to it, but it is not doing its job properly. Another area I want to raise in regard to the CRU is arrears. A report from the affordability task force yesterday mentioned that in June, 13% of electricity customers and 27% of gas customers were in arrears.”
“In September 2025, Energia announced an increase in its energy prices. I think it was going to add an extra €200 or so onto people's bills. Energia stated that these price changes are "now unavoidable" due to "ongoing, substantial increases in electricity, system operator and network charges" and "that these costs are required to recover the costs of ensuring security of supply, addressing network constraints and investing in the electricity grid." That is incorrect. That is misinformation that is being put out to hundreds of thousands of Energia customers. I raised this with the CRU representatives at a meeting of the energy committee six weeks ago and asked them to look into it, but that press release is still on the Energia website.”
“I was interested to see in the report by the affordability task force that it stated that, essentially, the network charges from the CRU's recent decision will put an increase of approximately €29 per year onto a typical customer bill. I want to raise this issue with the Minister of State because I am quite concerned about it. I raised it with the CRU over a month ago. It must be six weeks since I raised it with the CRU at a committee meeting, but it appears that nothing has been done. The Government needs to ensure that when it is making investments in the grid and when additional charges go onto consumer bills, there is transparency about these charges and the energy companies do not use the Government's investment in the grid to hike up prices, because that is exactly what we have seen.”
“I believe a large part of that is down to the demand that is being placed on the trading and use of electricity. I ask the Minister of State to look into that and not ignore it. We are not saying there should be absolutely no data centres; we are saying there is a need to put in good data centres that are efficient, can work in a complex electrical environment, can actually act as storage and can perform a function as part of that whole system. Do not just roll out planning permissions or approvals for them or roll out the grid because it is very costly to do that. I also want to make the point that when the Government invests in the grid, it puts additional costs on consumers. There is an economic reality there.”
“Over the past few years, we had instances where there were risks of brownouts and blackouts because the grid was not sufficient and was not able to deal with the demand, primarily from data centres. What did we have to do? The Government had to rush out and purchase generators that cost hundreds of millions of euro to ensure the data centres had access to a grid. It is really important that when decisions are being made about data centres, we know how many we can afford in this country from a climate perspective, from an energy security perspective and from an energy pricing perspective. The more pressure and the more demand that is put on a commodity such as electricity, the higher the price goes. Over the past few years, we have seen so many prices skyrocketing. Ordinary individuals are unable to keep on top of that.”
“That is a risk and I ask the Government to look at it. When I became a TD six years ago, one of the first motions I brought forward was on data centres and seeking a moratorium on them. It was not that the Social Democrats were against data centres per se - there was not a blanket objection in principle to data centres - but we wanted to see strategic management of data centres because it was clear, even back then, that this was not happening. We were seeing projections that were forecasting that by 2030, 30% of our electricity demand would be coming from the data centre industry. When we look at what actually happens in Europe, where the relevant figure is 2% to 3%, we see that Ireland is being disproportionately impacted by the demand from data centres on our electricity grid.”
“We must ensure that if the lights go out, we can make those homes resilient and not focus our efforts on those corporations. The Minister of State talked about PR6. As I have raised at the committee, PR6 will only invest in the grid to support the current level of data centre applications. It is not for any future data centres. According to the affordability task force, we will see an increase of 45% in electricity demand over the next decade. There is a real worry that even with this level of investment and the investment being given under PR6, if we continue to allow increases in the electricity used by data centres and this proliferation of data centres, the grid will still not be sufficient. It is only going to shore up the grid and secure the issues for the current level of data centres and not any future ones.”
“However, there are certain aspects that we need to consider. One is that while we are putting in this investment, we must consider the costs and how people are going to pay for that grid infrastructure. Care needs to be taken to ensure we are not disproportionately impacting people who cannot afford any higher costs on their bills. It is important that we also ensure there is prioritisation of those resources, particularly for residents, people who are vulnerable and, indeed, small businesses. What we are seeing at the moment is, unfortunately, investment in a grid that will ultimately benefit large corporations through the supporting of the whole data centre industry. I will come to that shortly. We need to make sure that if the lights go out, we can assist the people who are most vulnerable and most at risk.”
“I also welcome the fact the increase to the ESB's borrowing limit will unlock over 500 capital projects, including 181 km of new overhead lines, 319 km of underground cables, 70 new and upgraded substations and 50,000 pole replacements. Reading out those figures, you realise that the scale of the job ahead of ESB Networks and the teams, the workers on the ground to whom the Minister of State referred, is enormous. It is important that we invest in the ESB to help us achieve that modern and resilient electricity system. We saw an awful lot of gaps in the legislation and the different frameworks when we saw what Storm Éowyn did, particularly to forestry corridors. It is important that we manage the vegetation around the grid to stop these kinds of outages. This is all positive. This is a positive step from the Government.”
“We will potentially see more of those storms. That is the reality we face because of climate change. We will see more frequent and more severe storms. We cannot look at what happened during Storm Éowyn and consider it as a very difficult period in time. It is something that we need to learn an awful lot of lessons from and we need to see it as a wake-up call. The reality is that our grid is not resilient enough and our infrastructure is not ready. Indeed, our emergency services were stretched to their limits in their response. I welcome the Bill because I believe it can play a part in getting us onto a proper footing to deal with similar instances. I hope we do not have to deal with too many but we need to be ready and prepared to deal with them if they do happen. I welcome the Bill and the €1.5 billion equity investment for ESB Networks.”
“In the aftermath, emergency centres were set up, international crews were flown in and thousands of families were left in the cold. However, it was not a freak event. The unfortunate reality is that we-----”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. It is not just a technical debate about infrastructure. It is a discussion about the changing economic climate in Ireland, the changing environmental framework we are dealing with and how we prepare for those different changes as we go into the next decade. It is also a question of fairness and who we are building out our energy systems for. That needs to be a large part of the discussion here today. It is nearly a year now since January 2025 when Storm Éowyn tore through Ireland, leaving 768,000 homes, farms and businesses without power. It was the worst storm that ESB Networks and the country have ever faced. Poles snapped, lines were down and entire communities were cut off from heat, light and communication for weeks on end.”
“I echo the comments about PLS. Unfortunately, during the previous term the Minister for energy got into a really bad habit of rushing Bills through the committee without proper scrutiny and it looks like the Minister of State is taking up that mantle and doing similarly. As a principle, all Bills should go through PLS unless there is an urgent or emergency reason not to. I do not think that is the case in this instance and it certainly was not the case previously. I ask the Government to stop using that mechanism. The Government members within the committee will always have the majority vote so I ask the Government to please allow Bills to go through the proper process. It will mean a much more robust debate and better legislation at the end of the day. It is not wasted time but very much valuable time. I ask the Government to do that.”
“Thousands of farmers met in Cork last night and they are really angry. They are correct in being angry because the Government has put its head in the sand and pretended that business as usual will be able to continue and that Ireland will be able to retain its nitrates derogation. That is looking more and more unlikely. The reality is we have had the nitrates derogation since 2006. We got it on the basis we would improve our water quality but we have not done it in 20 years. The EU is probably going to tell us the derogation is gone and we will not be able to retain it. Where is the Government's plan B for these farmers? It has led them to a cliff on the nitrates derogation and there will be nothing in place for them come January if that derogation is not retained.”
“Its representatives said that in the absence of any other data or information, the quota set by ICES, which was 2,240 tonnes, was the one that should be used. The precautionary principle needs to be used here. If the Minister of State does not get this right there may not be a fishery for some of those inshore boats and it is short-sighted not to apply a quota.”
“I plead for the Minister of State to have it as stand-alone legislation and that it is not just tacked on to something else. That would not give it the focus it requires. Please, get that done. We have been too long waiting and in the meantime, we are seeing stocks collapse and we are seeing our fishing industry collapse as well. In his speech earlier, the Minister of State mentioned sprat. He referred to the fact that the banning of vessels over 18 m was an inshore-fishery measure. It is reckless of the Minister of State not to put in a quota for boats of under 18 m. He can still ensure a proper fishery for the boats under 18 m. They can still be prioritised but there needs to be a quota. The Marine Institute was very clear on this in the committee.”
“In 2003 Ireland established, under the conditions of the EU, a biologically sensitive area. This enables restrictions on certain types of fishing within an area, based on its importance as a nursery area. Perhaps the Minister of State can look at this to deal with the blue whiting issue because the nursery area for that is currently in trouble. The provision could be used for that. The biologically sensitive areas seem to be a precursor to the marine protected areas. I strongly urge the Minister of State to get the marine protected area legislation in place. If that is done properly, not only will it protect our stocks, it will also protect our inshore fishers. If it is done well, it will increase fishing potential for people, so it needs to be done urgently.”
“They need to be a core focus of the Minister of State's work. We need to start looking at Article 7 of the Common Fisheries Policy and actually start implementing it. This allows for fishing opportunities and for states to use transparent and objective criteria with a focus on social, environmental and economic criteria. This means that within the Common Fisheries Policy, the Minister of State can enable a much clearer focus on inshore fisheries and the low-impact fishers, which is what we really want to have. More resources can be directed to them under this provision. I do not understand why we have not used it. I ask the Minister of State to look at this seriously. Previously, there was an issue with hake off the south west of Ireland, which is a nursery ground for this fish.”
“If it is the case, we need to make sure that we have alliances going in Europe that will fight and stand by us on that. That is really important. I do not know why we have always got the short end of the stick, I just do not understand it as I am not in the room. Previous Ministers might have a better understanding but it is time for that to stop and it is time for us to get our fair share. Even within the system, I believe there are tools that we can use to ensure a more sustainable fishery and a better way of managing the fishery, particularly for our inshore fishers. They have been ignored for far too long. They are being squeezed into smaller and smaller geographical areas and are being confined to fewer and fewer species. That in itself is putting huge pressure on the species that are there.”
“As a country, we need to get this message across to Europe. Even though the framework as it is set up is not working properly, I believe there are tools within the system that Ireland can use. I do not know why we have not been able to negotiate more strongly on the quotas in recent years and why Ireland has not been getting a fair share. There are two important principles here. One is that the overall quotas stay within the species' biological limits and that they are evidence- and science-based. That is the primary thing. If we do not get that right, there will be no fish for anybody. Within the quota, that is, the large cake that is determined to be there, Ireland needs to get its fair share. This is the fundamental thing we need to be fighting for.”
“Since 2010, the collective quota set by the coastal states, which include UK, the EU, Norway and others, has resulted in actual catches that have exceeded the scientific advice by an average of 39% every year. Fish stocks do not work this way. If you overfish them, there is not enough mature fish to reproduce to keep that stock going. That is the fundamental basis of it. If we continue to allow and facilitate overfishing, we are wiping that species out. We are looking at a 41% reduction from the previous year's advice. Norway, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, the UK and the European Union have consistently exceeded the advised catches. We have discussed in the committee how Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland are particularly problematic in that they are allowed and facilitated to overfish a species to which they really should have no right.”
“It is important when we talk about these stocks' collapse to state that this is not just a problem for Ireland. The collapse of this stock is catastrophic. Again, this is because it has not been managed properly. The ICES advice regarding the mackerel stocks is that the total allowable catch must be no more than 174,000 tonnes. That is a 77% reduction compared with the estimated catch in 2025. That advice is driven by the maximum sustainable yield. Essentially, what that says is there will be a 50% probability that the spawning stock biomass can recover to the absolute minimum biological limit by 2027. That is only a 50% chance. If we manage to keep to that 77% reduction, there is still only a 50% chance that the stock will be recoverable. That is just incredible. Decades of overfishing have caused this crisis.”
“I was working on a cod project at the time and I would talk to fisherman who would ask what I was trying to sample. When I would say cod - cod and haddock - they would laugh in my face and say I was not going to get any cod out there. That was probably 20 years ago and we can see now that has continued to play out. When we are looking at the state of our whitefish stocks at present, we have a zero catch TAC for cod in the north west, the Irish Sea and the Celtic Sea, and for haddock, whiting and pollock in the Celtic Sea. That in itself is a clear illustration that the system we are currently operating on is not working. We are seeing the collapse of stocks. There are two particular stocks that have been a large part of the discussion today, namely, mackerel stocks and the blue whiting stocks.”
“Their quotas are being squeezed and these fishermen are being squeezed out of their boats, out of their jobs and probably out of a history of generations of working in that area. Unfortunately, the Common Fisheries Policy as it is currently being managed is also putting our fish stocks at huge risk. This policy is not working for any element of the stakeholders it was essentially set up to protect. This is not something that has happened recently. There has been updated information from ICES regarding stocks of certain species but this is not something that has happened recently. Twenty years ago, when I was fishing out of Howth, I would have gone down with the Marine Institute to fish from there. We used to go up to particular boats and ask could we go out with them for the week to catch some samples.”
“It is clear at this stage that the Common Fisheries Policy, as it is currently being implemented, is not fit for purpose. Something that was established 40 years ago to provide for a co-ordinated management of fish stocks has failed. It has failed to protect fish stocks, to protect our marine and to protect Irish fishing industry. Our Irish fishing industry is one that is core to who we are as an island country. It is core to our coastal communities and to our identity. Rather than being part of a process in Europe that protects that, what we have seen happen is the sustainability of the fishery itself being completely eroded by the systems that have been put in place. Fishermen have been squeezed further and further.”
“We need a rapid response team, a cross-agency team, to be set up immediately to quickly respond to pollution incidents and with the ability to collect whatever samples are required. When incidents are found, there has to be enforcement and fines commensurate with the damage caused.”
“Uisce Éireann has recently been fined €3,500 for a pollution event that occurred in Cavan. This pollution event resulted in a 2 km stretch of riverbed being covered with sewage fungus and hundreds of brown trout dying. Unfortunately, this is not a one-off incident. If we look, Uisce Éireann is repeatedly fined for breaches of its licence and for causing pollution events. Unfortunately, the paltry €3,500 fine is laughable, considering the damage that is being done. This follows hot on the heels of a major and catastrophic fish kill in the Blackwater, County Cork. We need a complete overhaul of how the State deals with a pollution event. What we see is State agencies essentially treating our rivers like drains and not protecting valuable river systems.”
“Over 300,000 households are in electricity arrears, while 1 million will see hikes in their electricity bills this month. At the same time, wholesale energy prices have dropped by 75% from the peak of the energy crisis. Earlier the Taoiseach asked where the pressure was on these energy companies. I agree 100% with him. Where is the pressure on these energy companies? That is his job. Families are struggling between eating, electricity costs and heating their homes. I remind the Taoiseach the Government is currently sitting approximately €190 million from the windfall taxes brought in over the past couple of years. Why is the Government not using that money to alleviate the pressures on families who are really struggling? They will continue to struggle over the course of the winter.”
“We have not done that for many decades. What we are seeing is a continual degradation of nature in this country. At what stage will we say that enough is enough and that we need now to protect and restore nature? There is a different way. We do not have to destroy nature as we grow. There is a way to grow sustainably with it, but it is important that the Government take the lead in this regard. I hope the Government will take those lessons, and those from Manchán Magan, forward.”
“The Minister for agriculture spoke about how retaining the nitrates directive is his number one priority, despite the fact that it has had a huge impact on our landscape and our rivers. A mere 20 rivers are in pristine condition, versus 500 rivers in the 1980s. We have seen a 90% drop in our salmon populations since the 1970s. One third of our wild species are threatened with extinction and 63% of our birds are in decline. I take this opportunity to say, in memory of Manchán Magan, because I think it is something he would have appreciated and felt strongly about, that it is foolhardy to think we can continue to live the way we do. The Government cannot continue to govern the way it does. We need to respect nature. Nature is not something to be exploited It is to be lived with in a sustainable manner.”
“On that note, the Government has closed its eyes to nature and the environment. Instead of seeing us as part of nature, it sees us as something above it. It sees nature as something to win over, fight, control and make profits from and the budget was a perfect example of that. Let us look at the €85 million allocated in respect of the bovine TB eradication programme. A large proportion of that will be for badger culling, when all the evidence from the UK and Scotland shows that it does not make a difference in the eradication of bovine TB. The document refers to rivers as channels, something the OPW is given money for. They are invested in to try to engineer our way out of climate change, climate impacts and flood risk, rather than looking at nature as part of the solution.”
“When he spoke, he created connections from the present day to our ancestors, our past, our landscapes, our nature and our culture and, indeed, other cultures. At a time when people across the world are increasingly divided, he showed how ancient cultures were connected and how they were all the richer for that. Particularly important for me was that - and I was appreciative of it - he completely understood nature and where we stand in relation to it. We are part of nature. We do not stand above it. That is how many indigenous cultures think about nature, and we have forgotten that. Therefore, I wanted to remember Manchán today. He was a gift to our nation. There is a responsibility on us to take the work he did and move forward with it strongly. Ní bheidh a leithéid arís ann.”
“It is a week today since Manchán Magan passed from this world. I take this opportunity to remember him and reflect on a truly incredible person. In the past week, we have heard people who knew him well tell stories about him and talk about their respect for him and gratitude for the work he did and how he touched their lives. I did not know him. I only met him once at a talk he gave at the Mermaid Arts Centre in Bray. The talk lasted an hour and a half and was about rewilding your mind. He spoke as Gaeilge and as Béarla, and he had the audience completely transfixed. In science, we talk about how when we learn, our brains create synapses and connections. That is how our brains work. Manchán could achieve the same thing with his words.”
“There is also the tourism perspective and the broader conditions relating to the environment, biodiversity and nature that need to be protected. I wanted to use that as an example to show that we have not got this right. There are many problems with how the system is being applied. I know that is outside the scope of the Bill but it has to feature. I hope we will have a big discussion on the Blackwater and see what the process is, but this is something that absolutely needs to be addressed. We cannot continue as we are.”
“Even though the EPA has said it cannot find any real link between the creamery and the fish kill, the levels of discharge by the NCC into the site were incredibly high. That just goes to show that we can try to improve the system by having timelines and modify and make changes to the system, but the EPA has to enforce the legislation that is in place and that it needs to be resourced to do that. Otherwise, it will all go to waste. Our history and track record when it comes to protecting rivers is not acceptable. This is not just about the creamery. The river is really important to the local area from a recreation perspective and from the perspective of small businesses. There are a lot of anglers and angling businesses on the river.”