Mr. David Flynn:

Yes, I will continue from where we last heard Mr. Ó Coigligh.

Ireland has a very high standard of drinking water quality, but we have seen in recent days a serious impact on people’s health and, indeed, a breach of trust when the proper operation of our water services breaks down. While the incidents at Gorey and Ballymore Eustace will properly be the subject of discussion today, it is important we set out the broad challenges facing Ireland in ensuring the quality of our drinking water, the water we swim in and the health of our rivers and lakes. They are all part of the same ecosystem.

The programme for Government states, "Water infrastructure deficits impact on the provision of safe and secure drinking water, lead to pollution and environmental damage, and present a challenge to achieving sustainable development across urban and rural Ireland". The programme sets out a range of commitments to address infrastructure deficits, the need to adapt to climate change, and to progress institutional and regulatory reform in the water areas.

The past decade has seen a significant period of institutional reform in the approach to the delivery of water services and the promotion of wider environmental protection. However, complex and pressing challenges remain and it is crucial the reform that has taken place since 2013 is built upon to meet the challenges now being faced. First, institutional reform must be completed to ensure Irish Water is in a position to deliver on its potential as a world-class public utility to serve the current and future needs of the Irish people. Reform of the delivery of rural water services must also be progressed to support rural communities. Second, a sustained high level of investment is required to ensure Ireland can meet its obligations to comply with EU water and wastewater requirements, to ensure our infrastructure is resilient to cope with the challenges presented by climate change, and to support housing and regionally balanced economic development in line with the national planning framework. Finally, we must protect our rivers, lakes and groundwater by modernising our legal framework and by working across government to address the causes of dispersed pollution, including through actions that coincide with, or support, national objectives in addressing climate change and biodiversity loss.

Recent Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, reports, including the most recent report on the state of the environment in Ireland, have shown a concerning trend of decline in the quality of the waters in our rivers and lakes over the past 10 years. It is also worrying that this is impacting on rivers and lakes of previously excellent or high water quality. Key actions must include credible management measures to address agricultural discharges and investment in urban and rural wastewater infrastructure, which are the two most significant pressures on waters.

I will turn to the Government policy on institutional reform. Last February, the Government published the paper entitled Irish Water - Towards a National, Publicly-Owned, Regulated Water Services Utility. The paper set out clearly that Irish Water must evolve to take full control of the water services workforce and of its assets. The paper pointed out that unnecessary risks would arise to the safe and effective delivery of water services unless further service integration was progressed. As the paper states, a fully integrated national utility provides "clear and effective lines of authority, responsibility and accountability. In particular, the necessary alignment between [the] operational control and statutory responsibility [will be] ... achieved, thereby minimising risks to service delivery."

Local authorities and their staff have worked closely with Irish Water under the service level agreements established to get Irish Water up and running, but the limitations of this model are clear. A process commenced under the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, to seek agreement on new arrangements that give Irish Water full control of service delivery. Formal talks took place in July and further talks are scheduled for next month. However, it is clear, in light of the EPA findings of "abject failure of operational management" at Gorey and Ballymore Eustace in recent times, more immediate steps are now required to improve operational management and to rebuild trust in the delivery of our water services. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, set out a number of steps regarding his expectations in this regard last Saturday when we met with managers of Irish Water and the local authorities.

On investment, Irish Water, backed by sustained high levels of Government funding, is well-placed to develop the systems and services Ireland needs to serve our citizens in the 21st century. In the immediate term, as part of budget 2021, the Minister secured funding of more than €1.4 billion to support water services. This includes €1.3 billion in respect of domestic water services provision by Irish Water, being met by the Exchequer from the Department’s Vote. This overall investment will deliver significant improvements in our water and wastewater services throughout the country, including rural Ireland, and support a range of programmes delivering improved water quality in rivers, lakes and in the marine area.

In the medium term, the recently published Housing for All strategy recognises that investment in our water infrastructure is vital to reaching our target of 300,000 new homes by 2030. In respect of domestic water services investment, there is a commitment of €4.5 billion to be spent on vital infrastructure in the period 2021 to 2025, including on projects focused on supporting growth and future development, with particular focus on those supporting housing delivery. Irish Water is continuing to work closely with local authorities across the country, ensuring that investment supports the growth of identified settlements where these are prioritised in line with their development plans. My colleagues from Irish Water can give more detail on investment priorities, including town and village investment.

Through local authorities, the Department is working to deliver €95 million of capital investment in the rural water programme for the period 2018 to 2021. We are examining the wastewater requirements of villages and similar settlements that do not have access to public wastewater infrastructure serviced by Irish Water and are engaging with local authorities to quantify and qualify the number of villages and similar settlements that may be supported by this new scheme. This process is at an advanced stage and will feed into the development of proposals for consideration by the Minister.

We also need to respond to the challenges of climate change, biodiversity crises and ensuring that our waters are well protected. We would be doing the taxpayer and citizen a disservice if we undermined our investment in water infrastructure by not protecting the sources of our drinking water. The measures required to take this overall approach to our water environment are set out in our national river basin management plan. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, will launch a new six-month public consultation and dialogue on the draft of our new six-year plan next week. It might be of interest to the committee to discuss that plan at a future date.

I thank members for their time today. We will be happy to take questions.