Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail)

I acknowledge that the Minister agreed during the Committee Stage debate that he would engage in a four-week period of consultation regarding the standards and this is to be commended. We need to have meaningful engagement. During Committee Stage my party proposed that the representatives of the various stakeholder organisations, including the EPA, Engineers Ireland, local authority managers and Irish rural dwellers, would be afforded an opportunity to give their views. I take this opportunity to ask whether the intent of that proposal can be considered during the four-week consultation period. I hope we will be afforded an opportunity to meet the EPA in particular because it will be the lead organisation, the main driver for setting the standard and the roll-out of the inspection and enforcement regime. I ask for an assurance from the Minister that those organisations will be asked to appear before a committee so we can have face time, as they say in the United States, with these groups in order to tease out the issues. It is broadly acknowledged that the nub of the issue is what will be the standard, along with some other important nuances such as how the inspections will be carried out. People are concerned, primarily, as regards the potential cost arising.

I echo what has been said by Deputies Brian Stanley and Martin Ferris. Everybody in rural Ireland wants to play their part in promoting clean water and a better water standard. There has been much political debate on this issue. It is not a case of the great unwashed beyond the Pale and Dublin who do not seem to give a damn about water quality. People in rural Ireland are as concerned about the environment as anyone else. The point has been rightly made with regard to the urban-rural divide. Many people living in all parts of urban Dublin own septic tanks in their holiday homes down the country so this is as pertinent an issue for many people living in Dublin as it is for the many people living in the countryside. I ask for clarification regarding our proposal and I ask for an assurance that these organisations, primarily the EPA, will be brought before a committee during the four-week consultation period to help inform us on the issue.

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