Caít Keane (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the EPA and the need for Irish Water to develop a national strategy on lead, has this started? Is it just beginning or what is its current status? Has the EPA been in contact with Irish Water on the national strategy? While I had a question on fracking, most of it has been answered except in respect of Mr. Lynott's statement that €1.5 million has been allocated from the EPA's own funding for fracking research. While this is a lot of money, it is necessary because fracking is such a contentious issue. However, it is not an unknown issue, particularly in America, Poland and elsewhere. Is it necessary for the EPA to reinvent the wheel because the type of rock to be found in Ireland and in particular near Enniskillen is widespread? Obviously, the EPA does not need to bore a hole for every investigation and I presume this has been taken into consideration.

To change the subject, I refer to wastewater discharge and the lack of treatments. Members have heard the debate on that, on water and on what should have been done. I am aware that two cases are before the courts at present and while I will not mention them, are other cases imminent? When the EPA first inspected the domestic wastewater treatment facilities, there was a failure rate of 38%, which is very high. It improved on the second inspection on foot of money being put into them. However, the failure rate remains at approximately 24%, which means a great number of wastewater treatment facilities still are failing and obviously money is required for this. I did some research on the PricewaterhouseCoopers report mentioned by Ms Burke and note it stated there was an underinvestment in water of €5 billion. This money must be found somewhere and this is an issue that members are discussing and have been discussing for some time.

On climate change, I believe Deputy Catherine Murphy mentioned the new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the recommendations therein. Ms Burke has just stated that Ireland will find it difficult to meet its 2020 target and that its emissions have remained static, perhaps from 2008 onwards. As the joint committee will be dealing with the climate change Bill, the EPA should provide the members with five specific recommendations as to what they should be doing. As Ireland is a country with high agricultural outputs, what must we do and seek in this regard? Another scenario is if we were obliged to import food from countries that are not as environmentally-friendly as Ireland. This must also be taken into consideration in the context of any climate change facility or discussions that take place. I will not comment further on this because obviously members will be having discussions on it later.

On the national radon control strategy, the EPA has undertaken to conduct research to underpin the strategy. What is the current status of that research and when does the EPA hope to have it published? The merger of the EPA and the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland, RPII, went very well, even though some thought the world was going to fall in when the merger was originally proposed. I had a note about the new app, "See it? Say it!", on which Mr. O'Leary reported. I seek a comment regarding the EU directive that has been transposed to Irish law on water pricing and the full price recovery of the cost of water. It is an EU directive, Ireland is bound in law to do it and is late in implementing it. How long will it be before Ireland is fined? Just as someone asked Mr. O'Leary when will his patience run out, when will the patience of the European Union run out if we do not transpose the aforementioned directive into law?

On the water, I compliment Ms Laura Burke on using the correct terminology in her statement of "Uisce Éireann". She is one of the few to have done so. I hear it being referred to all the time as Irish Water but in the legislation, it is Uisce Éireann. I keep repeating that point but only Ms Burke and I appear to be doing it at present. Nevertheless, I ask her to e-mail the figures she gave in response to the question on Irish Water, as I do not believe they are contained in her own presentation. I ask her to forward this information to the joint committee please.