Heavy penalties proposed £200 pollution fines

25 Jun 1970

A PRIVATE Member’s Bill that would impose a fine of £200 a day on anyone continuing to pollute waters after caution from a local authority will be introduced in the Dail by Mr. Luke Belton, chairman of the National Waters Conservation Association.

Mr. Belton told a meeting in Dublin yesterday that his Bill would replace the present “useless and archaic” legislation covering pollution and would be a serious step towards saving huge areas of Irish sea and inland waters before they were destroyed. He appealed to all parties in the Dail for support and said it would empower the Minister for Local Government to require a local authority to, take immediate steps to purify waters where he is satisfied pollution had occurred. Mr. Eoin Taggart, press officer of the association, charged that the worst polluters of Dublin rivers were the Dublin Corporation and Dublin City Council. He instanced the lower reaches of the Liffey, Tolka, Camac, Poddle, Swan and Dodder as being “already dead” and added: “If this Bill does not go through the Dail unopposed, this Conservation Year will be a laugh and nothing more.”

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