From: William Finnerty
To: Minister
Noel Dempsey
Cc: Minister
Micheal Martin ; Minister John O'Donoghue ; Attorney General (Mr Michael
McDowell) ; Prime Minister Bertie Ahern ; Mr Tom Kavanagh
(Galway County Council Director of Environmental & Conservation Services) ; President Mary
McAleese ; Minister
Michael Woods ; Senator Margaret Cox ; MEP (Mrs Rosemarie Scallon)
; Minister James McDaid ; Minister
Frank Fahey
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2001 2:02 PM
Subject: Environmental problem (in New Inn village, County Galway).
Dear Minister Dempsey,
Thank you for the Email (dated April 17th 2001) which I have recently received from your
Office in connection with the sewage discharge problems in the village of New Inn (County
Galway).
In the meantime, and for the purpose of trying to help you visualize the difficulties in
question, I have put some photographs onto the semi-private page at the www address
immediately below:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~williamfinnerty/environment.htm
My hope is that the photographs (and supporting text) at the www page address
given above will help you and your colleagues to better understand the nature of the
overall sewage discharge problem in the small village community where I live; and that you
will do all you reasonably can to have things fully corrected before the warm days of
summer return. As I trust you will understand, warm weather tends to accentuate the
difficulties: especially those connected with air pollution.
I am copying this Email to a selection of other people because (as I see it) the ongoing
sewage disposal problems in question have important implications for both Local and
Central Government; and also for The President (by virtue of the contents of
the Constitution). With regard to the President's role as overall guardian of
the Constitution, I am thinking particularly of section 8 in Article 12
(reproduced in the paragraph below):
The President shall enter upon his/her office by
taking and subscribing publicly, in the presence of members of both Houses of the
Oireachtas, of Judges of the Supreme Court and of the High Court, and other public
personages, the following declaration:
"In the presence of Almighty God I do solemnly and
sincerely promise and declare that I will maintain the Constitution of Ireland and uphold
its laws, that I will fulfil my duties faithfully and conscientiously in accordance with
the Constitution and the law, and that I will dedicate my abilities to the service and
welfare of the people of Ireland. May God direct and sustain me."
According to the legal advice I have received (from local
solicitor Mr. Florence MacCarthy), and as I have already stated in earlier
correspondence, the type of sewage discharges I am writing to you about are in breach
of several Irish and European pollution laws - including the following three: (a) The Air Pollution Act of 1987; (b) The Local Government Water Pollution
Act of 1997; and (c) The EEC Environmental Act of 1992. (Please see note added on May 29th 2001 below.)
To cover for the possibility of email delivery problems, I intend to send you a printed
copy of this Email through the registered post later today.
Yours sincerely,
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Email: wfinnerty@eircom.net
Web site: http://homepage.eircom.net/~williamfinnerty/
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