Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Regarding the period of the past 20 years, what sort of graph do our guests have in respect of the damage caused by farming and intensive farming in particular? They stated it is getting worse rather than better. Is there a steer in that regard or what can be done?

Is there a correlation between global warming and water quality?

As a former local authority member, I recently conducted a survey and was horrified by what I learned about counties such as Cork, my home county, Donegal, Kilkenny and Waterford. I spoke to councillors and, in some cases, area engineers. Approximately 40%, and in some cases more, of wastewater plants for towns, villages and all sorts of settlements are either over capacity or at capacity. That sounds crazy, given there is such a big plan to develop housing and so on. I do not know whether it is the EPA's function, but has it ever issued a warning to local authorities in that regard? In my day, 30 or 35 years ago, local authorities looked after all the wastewater and so on and then Irish Water was set up. It is ironic that local authorities have to enforce these directives. I heard this information from officials at the councils and from local authority members. I acknowledge that the EPA's focus, because of our meetings, is on agriculture but I think the impact, either now or coming down the track, of an overload in capacity for wastewater treatment plants has not been highlighted sufficiently.