Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire agus an reachtaíocht seo. Our local authorities provided sterling service and did tremendous work during the course of the severe weather and water supply crises before and after Christmas. At a time when many commentators have been critical of public sector workers, the work done by local authority, ESB, HSE and other public sector workers and the Defence Forces must be acknowledged by all.

This motion calls for action. Sadly, in the 12 months since the last weather crisis, little or no action has been taken to put in place a strategy to alleviate and eliminate the hardships and restrictions people must endure owing to severe weather conditions. Salt for treating the road networks arrived late, even after Met Éireann forecast the snowstorm well in advance. Water supplies suffered leaks when pipes froze. During the Christmas, I visited households in private and council estates in my area in Bishopstown, Cork, in which the pipes were frozen. Will the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran, explain why some pipes freeze and others do not? Engineering should allow for pipes not to freeze or burst. How is that 43% of the treated water supply is lost through unidentified leaks in the system?

It is time for a radical approach to deal with these problems. I agree with Senator Ellis we should not establish a quango for the sake of it. We know well that quangos under Fianna Fáil have done nothing but cost the taxpayer money and have been used to reward its friends with appointments. It is time, however, we had a single publicly owned water utility company to take charge of water supply and have responsibility for investment in and management of the water supply network at national, local and regional levels.

The ESB did Trojan work over the Christmas ensuring no major disruptions in electricity supply occurred and rectifying quickly any that did. At a time when we heard criticism about the gargantuan salary paid to the ESB's chief executive officer, it is important to pay tribute to the staff and management of the ESB for the way they ensured supplies for their customers continued virtually uninterrupted.

The opposite is the case when it comes to the water system. Its management is fragmented, inefficient and outdated. There are 34 different water management authorities all working independently of one another with no joined-up thinking. The limits and problems of such management were evident in Cork's November 2009 flooding. Some parts of the city lost water supply because there was no interconnector to join city and county supply pipes. It is not about joining supplies over some great distance, like joining Las Vegas with San Francisco, because both supplies were only two miles apart.