Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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None other than thanking Mr. Deering. It has always been a pleasure. Some committees think it is a bashing competition, but we like to try to make it as progressive as we can. When you open up the art of conversation, it is amazing what things you can do and the things that can happen.

The Chair mentioned Uisce Éireann. Its to-and-fro servicing, even with us as elected representatives, is very shoddy. I am dealing with a boil-water notice in east Cork for the past six years. More than 10,000 people are affected. It is getting worse now and I am being told the same thing, which is to boil it. Vets are saying pets are getting sick. People are getting sick even from brushing their teeth. There was an incident in Dublin city not too long ago where there was a major water main break and it was possible to get tankers in within an hour, yet six years down the road we have 10,000 people who are still boiling water. There has been very little engagement except copy-and-paste replies. I said I would flag that to see whether there is anything we can do on that with Mr. Deering's office. Uisce Éireann is supposed to be supplying a service. I made the point the other day at the committee that it is funny people are still being charged for water even though they cannot use it. Meanwhile, for only a fiver a month you can provide water for a whole village in some places in Africa. We are talking about millions here and thousands of people are still without water in 2024.

I thank Mr. Deering as always for excellent engagement. I am looking forward to him coming back. I hope we will be coming back again to listen to him.