Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 11 February 2014

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht

Standards of Service in Water Supply: Irish Water and CER

5:30 pm

Photo of Luke FlanaganLuke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It was stated that the goal is that Irish Water wants clean, high-quality affordable water, and I agree with the officials on that but at the moment there is not clean or quality water where I come from and once the company starts charging people, we will not have affordable water either. I am, therefore, a little worried about the future.

Members have asked if people cannot drink the water in their homes, will they have to pay for it? However, the position is worse. Not only can people not drink it but they have to stand over their children to make sure they use bottled water when they brush their teeth. The children in my town, Castlerea, regularly have stomach aches way in excess of what to me was the norm years ago because try as one might, children will run for the tap. We live in fear that they will go near the product Irish Water is delivering to our houses. Reference was made to the company putting infrastructure and systems in place. The same structure will be in place and there will be an umbrella over it called Irish Water. That was obvious in the past while but it became even more obvious when Councillor John Murphy from Castlerea contacted the company about the water supply. He received a letter stating Irish Water took "responsibility for water services on 1 January 2014. As the agents of Irish Water, the local authorities will continue to operate the Castlerea schemes on our behalf as well as working with Irish Water to resolve the problem". If we end up with the same system to monitor water, how will that solve our problem?

I do not know if the officials are aware of this but I imagine they are. If not, it is terrifying to think that they have missed it. When people see polluted water, they are meant to go the EPA. When I contacted the agency, it instructed Roscommon County Council to investigate the problem. Irish Water says the council will continue to operate the Castlerea schemes. Where are our assurances that the water quality will improve? If one reports a problem, the council will get to investigate itself. What will change in the system?

It is bad enough that when one goes to the EPA, the agency then goes back to the local authority but I am sure the officials are aware of the pollution An Taisce has highlighted over the past week in a so-called SAC lake in Glenamaddy, County Galway. Raw sewage was being pumped into the lake. The EPA is aware of this and it was known by the agency as far as back as June 1997. The An Taisce report referred to Galway County Council's attempt to consider alternative sewage disposal options for several years but almost five years since the application, the problem remains and the EPA is yet to make a decision. Irish Water is the umbrella group for this disaster and the company will supposedly deliver drinking water to us. How is this possible? The officials talked about the system changing but it will not. The company will continue to work with local authorities. The public made the State's agencies well aware that raw sewage was being dumped in a lake in Glenamaddy. Members of the local turf cutting committee stood in front of Mr. Justice Quirke, a former High Court judge, and informed him that this was going on but nothing happened. What magic will the officials employ to change that?

The urban water in my town scheme is the subject of a boil water notice now as well as the rural water scheme. Families are spending on average €500 a year on water. When one has to use water to brush one's teeth, one has to use a lot of it.

If Irish Water cannot provide us with drinking water, will it buy this water for us? Someone will have to provide it for us and at the moment that is not happening. The local authority on which Irish Water is relying has advised us that it is responsible for providing the water but it is not responsible for it being polluted. What hope would that give us? How will things change under that system?

Rainwater harvesting has been mentioned. Those who install a rainwater harvesting system will end up using less water from the mains. Will that not put up the price of water for everyone who does not have a rainwater harvesting system? From what I have heard about what Irish Water is planning to do, if people do not use enough water and they save water, the price of the unit will need to go up. I cannot see how this will help environmentally and from many other points of view.

The CER has advised that the charging scheme will be decided in June. Why does Irish Water not inform people before the local elections? Has Irish Water gone political now? We heard that there are a number of key dates. As far as I can see there is only one key date, 23 May. That is made even clearer in the letter sent to Mr. John Murphy. The answer to the question as to when Irish Water would know what it will do with my drinking water was two months' time. So it will have news for the local elections, but after the local elections the urgency will be gone and we will be back to going down to the supermarket to get water. All the supermarkets in Castlerea now have bigger drinking water sections than they have alcohol sections, which is some achievement. The problem will not be solved.

On the previous occasion representatives from Irish Water appeared before the committee, I was told I was not allowed to bring up previous experiences of people who were running this organisation. However, today we have heard about the previous experience of other employees of Irish Water and how they need to be well paid, etc. While we are going on about previous experiences, can we please deal with this issue? Efficiency was mentioned. The head of Irish Water is described as-----

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.