Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses. Following up the earlier comments I made, I am looking forward to hearing directly from them about the service agreement for Croom.

A survey was done in 2019 of the waterways and I will use Limerick as an example. It showed the biggest polluters in Limerick are the local authorities. Enforcement notices have been served on people by the local authorities. They have been served on farmers, businesses and householders. They are being penalised through the courts for polluting waterways. When it comes to the local authorities, it is now shown they are the largest polluters in Limerick. On one hand, we are penalising people, rather than investing and encouraging them to upgrade their systems, while, on the other, local authorities are the largest polluters.

I turn to Askeaton, County Limerick, which I visited last Friday. I watched first hand raw sewage going into the waterways. Askeaton has been looking for a sewerage system upgrade for 33 years. Through successive Governments, people have been looking for the treatment system to be upgraded in Askeaton. We have been hearing about boil notices that can go on for 12 or 18 months but we have 33 years of Askeaton looking for a sewerage system and I have witnessed raw sewage going into the local waterway. I have also witnessed water extraction being done when the water was at its lowest. That caused further problems because the sewage that went into the waterways in Limerick was left there. There was nothing to wash it away because there was water extraction done further upstream.

I want a commitment from Irish Water to meet me in Askeaton in order that we can address some of these problems and make a plan. I recognise things cannot be fixed overnight but I want a plan with dates in it so I can help, one by one, to fix the historic issues in Limerick. The witnesses have inherited many of these problems but I want them to meet me and go through the issues. If we can name five and work off a list of those five, we will have accomplished something in my term in office. I want a commitment from Irish Water representatives that they will come and meet me in Limerick to do that.