Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the delegation for its answers.

I shall declare my view at this point. I am open to being convinced about the worthiness of this project. I am not against it in principle. I know from talking to senior water managers in South Dublin County Council, the local authority in which I live, that there is a need for additional capacity and diversification. I do not dispute any of those things. The issues are as follows. What is the level of that need? What is the most appropriate source or sources of that diversification? I accept the arguments that the move from Louth Derg to Parteen deals with many of the environmental concerns about an impact on ecosystems and the River Shannon.

The Kennedy report, whatever about the motivations of the people who wrote it, raises important questions. I have read the Irish Water documentation, the Kennedy report and the various exchanges since. Many questions asked by the authors of the report have not been answered and they have not been answered here today. Members of this committee would like to hear the answers. I shall repeat some of the questions again because they are important.

I do not dispute that there is an additional water need. In the 2006 report it was projected that Dublin would need 665 million litres per day in 2015. In the 2010 report the projection was downsized to 573 million litres per day. In 2015, the real water requirement was 540 million litres per day. Obviously we must project forward. If these figures are correct then how can we be sure that projections into the future will not have the same differential? That is an important point, regardless of source. Likewise, the methods for calculating the projected need have gone through various changes. One has the Tobin report, the Indecon report and Irish Water's methodology for calculating. Why are different methodologies chosen? How do different methodologies affect the projected level of need?

Mr. Grant cited the national planning framework and his answer is insufficient. The framework will be the master strategic planning framework for the State for the next number of years. Therefore, it will be the high level document within which any major and minor infrastructural project must take account. The Minister has told us that he wants to reverse a particular demographic, social, economic and infrastructural trend with this plan. Some of us are worried that the current proposal by Irish Water will go ahead before the plan is agreed and put on a statutory footing. One might have pipe-led development. It means, irrespective of the Government's plan and many of us hope that we will be able to sign up to it if it is a good one, the proposal may run counter to it and, therefore, may be a drag against what many of us want to see, namely, more balanced regional development. We should take cognisance of the plan. I would like to know, specifically, how Irish Water thinks it is appropriate to move to planning permission before we know what is contained in the national planning framework.

I shall not repeat all of the points in terms of the other plans. I shall comment on the river basin management plan, and my view is also relevant to groundwater. My understanding is, and please correct me if I am wrong, we do not know what the level of groundwater in the area surrounding the Dublin water supply region is because there is no data available. That data is being collected by the EPA in the most comprehensive form to date. Having that information would definitively let us know whether there are groundwater supplies that could be used, irrespective of the issues of opposition or otherwise. Surely knowing that information would be better because the only report that we have dates from 2008 and there are significant problems with same.

Not all of my questions were answered. On Dublin Bay and the environmental impact of the increased wastewater issues, has the increased volumes of wastewater that this project would bring into Dublin Bay been discussed with the European Commission in the context of the current infringement proceedings under the urban wastewater directive? If not, why not? Should such a matter not be discussed? This matter is of direct relevance to whether the European Commission will be satisfied that what is being done in Ringsend, which is good, will tackle the problem.

Mr. Grant mentioned that the strategic environment assessment is referenced in a broader SEA. There is no SEA for this project. Why? What will it cost? How long will it take?

In terms of the engagements on the river basin management plan and abstraction regulations, who is meeting whom? How often do they meet? Are they meetings of a technical nature? Are they just high level update meetings? Such information would enable us to understand the extent to which those two very important pieces of work feed into the detail of the plan by Irish Water.