Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)

I would like if the Minister showed a bit of respect for the office he holds by not interrupting me.

I wanted information from the Minister on Committee Stage on exactly what standard was being applied. He gave me a hopelessly pathetic nonsensical answer. As everybody knows, it is not enough for a person to say, "That tank is working" because one engineer can assess a tank as working while another engineer can come along and say it is not working. The two of them can be professionals but if they are not working to a set standard or regulations, how do they know what standard they are to apply? This is why the people the length and breadth of rural Ireland are worried and concerned. This is why when Deputy Martin Ferris called a meeting that 500 people turned up because they wanted information and they wanted answers. The Minister and his Government were not providing answers so that is why they wanted information. To say the Government has made a bags of this is to be very kind. It has handled the issue in a shoddy, unprofessional, hopeless and shambolic fashion. I make this accusation because the Government is terrorising people in rural Ireland. We all know that virtually every local authority has towns and villages that either have no sewage treatment plants or inadequate plants.

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