Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have a few remarks to make. Deputy Ó Broin said, as did Deputy Kenny, that it is not intention of this Bill or of the members of the committee to put public health at risk. Equally, no individual living in a rural area would want to contaminate their neighbours' well that supplies their drinking water. However, families are trying to build a home on their own land at a time when we have a housing crisis. I have been dealing with the issue of one-off rural housing for 15 years and it has consumed most of my time. Sometimes rural people get the feeling, as do I, that one off rural housing is looked on negatively all the way from Europe, down to national level, down to local level. There is a sense that one off rural housing is not wanted. That is the basis on which an applicant is starting and they have to convert a number of negatives to positives to build a home for their family.

To put some matters in context, Mr. Ó Cogligh said that we incurred financial penalties of €2.76 million in respect of one-off 440 wastewater treatment facilities. What other fines is our State incurring in respect of the discharges from our public wastewater facilities?

If we were to compare like with like, which is the lesser of the two evils? I often wonder because there is a significant lack of investment in public wastewater infrastructure and we are being fined for that. This is to put it into perspective that not just rural houses pollute our rivers and streams. Our public wastewater treatment plants do the same. The witnesses mentioned Wexford with regard to private housing developments. I concur that we have one or two in Wicklow that have continued to cause problems where discharge licences were given and there were significant issues with ongoing maintenance of wastewater facilities.

Dr. Ryan made a point about water quality having decreased by 3%. That would not all be related to septic tanks. There are other factors at play, including agriculture and, in my constituency, former mining activity has had an effect on water quality. When Dr. Ryan says that water quality has diminished by 3%, it is not just because of one-off rural housing. There are other significant factors at play, including the public supply or public discharge.

I have a few points for Mr. Gilhooly. He says that when considering a replacement house, there is a provision in the existing code of practice amounting to a relaxation of standards where an existing wastewater treatment system exists. If someone has a house and is replacing it, even though the replacement house can increase the population, the same standards do not apply to that development. I am not sure about the breakdown of village sizes in Leitrim. How many villages in Leitrim are on a public mains supply for water and sewerage? What level of investment is Irish Water making into small rural villages in Leitrim to improve the capacity of our villages to cater for rural housing? This is a problem nationally. Irish Water is not investing in any infrastructure for our rural villages in any form unless they are polluting and Irish Water has no choice but to intervene.