Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair and his colleagues for facilitating me. I wish to engage with the representatives from Irish Water and to thank them for the good work they are doing. I will try to start and end on a positive note and raise my concerns in between. Works are almost concluded on upgrading a major water mains in Milltown Malbay, County Clare. Members will be glad to hear that our good Oireachtas colleagues, the Healy-Raes, have the contract for this work. They have done a good job. The work is nearly finished and the local people seem to be quite happy with it. I thank Irish Water for its involvement there.

I am seriously concerned that there are still 35 small towns and villages from which sewage drains out into rivers and indeed, the sea. This has been criticised time and again by the EPA. Looking at it in respect of Government and Irish Water, there has been non-compliance with the EU wastewater directive for the past 16 years. We keep hearing that various schemes are being designed and are progressing. There is a parlance in Irish Water. I have heard it being used by Irish Water and other State bodies are using it. I refer to, for example, "Q1: design" and "Q4: procurement". It moves like this. Let us call the Q1s, Q2s, Q3s and Q4s what they are. They are seasons. It is about kicking things down the road. There are many Q1s and Q2s over a period of 16 years. We need to deliver on them.

In County Clare, there are several small towns and villages that are without sewers. If you flush a toilet in these towns and villages, it goes down to a gravel soak pit, into a stream, down to the local lake, and ultimately, the population is consuming that same water from their taps somewhere along the food chain sometime later on the same day. In County Clare, villages such as Broadford, which the Minister visited just a few weeks ago, Carrigaholt, Doolin, Cooraclare, and O'Brien's Bridge, have no sewerage infrastructure.

There is a need for a mindset that extends far beyond Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and the other major cities and towns. We need to deal with this. I have been speaking extensively on this issue to the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath. In the context of the review of the national development plan, there is a hope to provide a mechanism for funding these villages without sewers on a pilot scheme basis. It is to be hoped that will be handed over to Irish Water. We really need it to step up to the plate in that regard. This is an issue on which Fianna Fáil is leading in government.

Mains water in Limerick comes from a reservoir in Castletroy that serves a considerable portion of the city. My concern is that it also serves a population of approximately 10,000 people in County Clare. That is one tenth of the population of the county, so it is sizeable. In the past year, there have been 15 major outages on that trunk main. It is a 12-inch main that leaves Limerick city and crosses Athlunkard Bridge. It serves communities such as Westbury, Shannon Banks, Parteen and Ardnacrusha. The pipe continually bursts. It is a mish-mash of old asbestos piping, cast iron piping and modern plastic piping. It is an absolute disaster. The issue was considered in quarters 1 and 2. We need to hear something firm, definite and clear from Irish Water at this stage.

I am not sure which of our guests wish to respond to my questions. I do not mind who answers so long as the responses are positive.

I refer to malfunctioning sewerage plants. When I was a pupil in junior infants, the classroom was in a prefab. When I returned to the school 20 years later as a teacher, I was back in that prefab. It is the same with the local sewage treatment plant. We were all told that, like the prefab, it was temporary and would be gone in two or three years. Lo and behold, 25 years later the sewage treatment plants in villages such as Meelick or Ardnacrusha in County Clare are still functioning and breaking down. They have to be reseeded, pumped and desludged. Worst of all, they have to be masked with odour-suppressing chemicals. This issue is also before Irish Water. Again, it is not moving quickly enough. I hope our guests can somehow encapsulate some of those points and maybe give me some positive answers.