Mattie McGrath calls bill 'feeble and inept' and attacks Greens
Mattie McGrath criticised the bill as "feeble and inept", saying the Senate had 102 amendments that were rejected and that there was no workable timeline or pre-legislative scrutiny. He argued the legislation is unworkable, will not be properly debated, and risks damaging rural livelihoods, forestry and water infrastructure.
Main criticisms of the bill
McGrath said the measure started poorly and was not serious. He cited the rejection of 102 Senate amendments, a lack of time for debate, no opportunity for pre‑leadged scrutiny and described the overall approach as feeble and inept.
Procedural and timeline concerns
He warned the bill offers no workable timeline and criticised the absence of deadlines for amendments, speaking times and other stages of scrutiny. He said that without deadlines the process is ineffective and amounts to poor governance of the legislative timetable.
Water and infrastructure issues raised
McGrath raised concrete infrastructure concerns, citing sewerage and pollution entering rivers and waters, leaking pipework that loses 58% of water when bringing supplies from Tipperary, and the strain on treatment systems to cope with contamination.
Impact on rural communities and forestry
Speaking from a rural perspective, he argued the bill and associated policies threaten rural pursuits and forestry. He said forestry and timber are needed for housing construction and roofing, and that restrictions or mismanagement would worsen the housing crisis and harm rural livelihoods.
Accusations against the minister and the Green Party
McGrath accused the minister and the Green Party of pandering to supporters, fooling the public and lacking common sense on rural issues. He used strong language — calling elements of the proposal "poppycock" and saying the approach was tantamount to committing fraud on the people — and predicted political consequences for those he criticised.
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I too, Minister, when I saw this bill and when we researched it, I said it was feeble and inept. And here we started, the very start, the first hurdle, we're after falling. When I heard the Senate had 102 amendments and you rejected all of them. You're not serious about this bill. And the timeline I see will be on here, there's no timeline here and it's unworkable if you have the timeline. Now, Deputy Ahmed Barrett and I raised this in the Dáil yesterday in a business committee last week that we didn't have enough time to debate this bill. We still don't have enough time to debate it and we didn't have enough time for amendments, no pre-ledged scrutiny. Nothing. But we're coming from different sides to it. I don't know if Deputy Ahmed Barrett ever yielded an axe or drove a mallet or tried to stab the chainsaw. I doubt it. And I'm nodding against him. But there's more problems here in Dublin with ice spill, with our sewers going into the rivers, into our waters. And we're trying to bring water now from Tipperary up to a pipework that's leaking 58% of the water. And the sewerage, and oil, and other bad issues going into the water. And we're killing it in with treatment just to try and treat it. The whole thing is bananas. And Minister, here, go Harry. And Harry, Fianna Fáil and Harry own a green. You're here now. And it's your time, as Deputy Hilly Ray said. But look, the time will be, Minister Hackett, and I watched you well earlier, it'll be the timeline of you being banished again from government. When the next election comes, it might not be long you were banished before because you're caught up on all the silly things. Instead of looking after people's lives, and their livelihoods, and allow them to live. I quoted here earlier, and Deputy White Barrett had finished him, said we had helped him to educate himself around it. And I wouldn't know things about Dublin, and he knows. And Mrs O'Connor, and the other fellow he got in from someplace 150 years ago, the expert. We said that already. I went over to ask him, but they were alive, but they were dead with 150, 60 years or something, whatever. Like the snow off the mountains and the galaxies. But look, this is so sad. You started off here. You've no intention of making this work. You wanted to be pandering to your own supporters, Deputy Minister Hackett. Your own supporters, Manip Madair. That one of them I found out today, he's a serious objector. I think he's from my own town. And God knows we went to the same secondary school. But look, I'm not saying he's not qualified, he is. But look, we have to have common sense. And the common sense has gone out the window. And that's the problem with you and the Green Party. The last time you were in power again, you destroyed the coursing. You destroyed every kind of hurt. Anything to do with rural pursuits. What have you got against rural Ireland? We want to live. Here it is that we don't have the gold, or we don't have the silver. We have forestry. We have agriculture. We have animal land. I'm from the Golden Vale, one of the best lands in the country. But we have the mountains as well, that need to be planted and used. And above all, we can't build and sort out our housing crisis in any way if we have the timber to make the roofs. We can't make it with rushes, or bloody tacks like he had a hundred years ago. I know he'd love to be telling us all that, because he won't ever do that either. But I'll give us a decent grant to repair the tax roofs we have. So, it's poppycock, it's nonsense, it's patent-blackarding that you're doing, Minister of the Greens here. And to think that Deputy Minister McConnell will sit behind you, and his colleagues will come in here and speak, like we are speaking, and they'll go and support you. It's a downright double act. You're committing fraud on the people. Telling them you're one thing you're going to do, and then support this nonsense of a bill. It's a waste of time. As Deputy Fitzmorris said, go home now and forget about it, because you have no interest in sorting it out. If you happen to deadline on anything, you're going over. You have to have a deadline. There's deadlines for amendments, there's deadlines for speaking times here, there's deadlines for everything. Anything we do in the country, for all the other crops, the deadlines, our plannings, nothing for this. That goes to show, sure, that you won't accept the deadline. There is no deadline. I'm not saying don't give people the time, and there's FIs, and there's environmental impact studies, and God knows what. You're not only kind of codders, but you're codding yourself. To yourself you're harming, and to yourself you'll be banished from government again, and you'll come back in ten years, timed in again, and get another programme for government with some other fellows that are willing to take you in. You don't understand that. You're a farmer, and from rural Ireland, and I don't know how much density of prophecy, a fair bit for it, I think. You should understand this. The backlogs are there. All the harvesters, all the fellows with the replanting, and the forward rows, the holliers, the mills, and above all, you won't have the finished product for your presses, or your wardrows, or anything, or even the roof. So where are we going? I mean, this kindergarten, children wouldn't come up with this kind of baloney. They wouldn't, because it's just an effort to let on you do something, and fool the people. But you're fooling no one. You're fooling no one because someone said the trees from the forest here, the woods from the trees, you're not codding anyone. This is shameful. Thank you.
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