Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair for the opportunity to contribute. I am not a member of the committee, so I appreciate that opportunity, as I do the work of the EPA. I have been reading the EPA's reports for over 20 years. Going right back, I remember the 1999 environmental indicators report. It was one of those reports that made me sit up and say that something needs to be done about the degradation of our environment, in particular, water quality. The EPA's reports over the last 20 years have been based on science and have followed a methodology. They have been consistent, and the EPA has been taking samples in the same places and rivers for many years. The names of the researchers who have done these reports for the EPA are very familiar to me because I used many of the their reports while researching my thesis on the impacts of development on water quality back in 2003. It is 20 years since I started that thesis and longer again since I started reading the reports. The one thing that stands out is that for the past 20 or 25 years, the same factors have been reported as being the impacts on water quality. They are diffuse-source pollution from agriculture and point-source pollution from wastewater treatment plants. As much as people do not like science and criticise scientists when a message comes out that does not suit their narrative, we have to respect science. One can have different views on actions that need to be taken, but we need to respect science and the fact that the EPA is an independent organisation tasked with testing water quality and producing these reports for us.

In looking at impacts on water quality, we know there are wastewater treatment discharges, agricultural run-offs, slurries, wastes, etc.

I consider the end user of that water because we extract that water and use it as drinking water, whether from our lakes or groundwater or our rivers. There are significant human health impacts from damaging our water quality, apart from the impacts on biodiversity and nature. Some people will say, "We want to protect nature but we are not interested in taking actions on it." Let us ignore nature and biodiversity for the moment and take it right down to human health. What is the impact on human health of excessive nitrates in water?