Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

I am very concerned that residents of Pallaskenry, County Limerick, are being dragged into the High Court next week by Limerick County Council in order to compel them to stop a campaign to retain the clean water they have used for 50 years from Bleach Lough in their area. Residents benefitting from this water know from experience that it is a pure and unpolluted source that provides good quality water to their homes. The residents are threatened with jail in the coming weeks unless they acquiesce to a diktat from Limerick County Council to give up their campaign.

In contrast, the neighbouring areas, including Kilcornan parish, have suffered for decades from a supply of water of dreadful quality and urgently need and want a new water supply which Limerick County Council is harnessing from the River Deel. Unfortunately, the county council is also intent on bulldozing its way into the catchment area served by Bleach Lough and forcing the Deel water on the local community, as it intends to mix the two water supplies. Local people do not want this. While it would be a big improvement for the Kilcornan area the people in Pallaskenry are happier with the more local water supply they know and trust, which they believe would need less chemical input and is not as exposed to pollution sources as the alternative sources being developed by the council.

It is regrettable in the extreme that Limerick County Council has engineered a situation where it might seem that the Bleach Lough retention campaign is denying those in the adjoining areas who urgently need a new supply. This is not the case. It is the county council, which by its inflexible diktat has held up the situation for far too long. It is possible for Limerick County Council to allow the people of Pallaskenry to retain the Bleach Lough water while expediting the extension of the River Deel scheme to those who need it.

Local democracy and subsidiarity are terms often heard from Government and its Departments and agencies. If applied in practice, in this case it would mean respecting the residents of Pallaskenry who want to hold on to the Bleach Lough water supply while, as a matter of urgency, providing a new supply for those communities which have scandalously been left with water of inferior quality for far too long.

Will the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and his Department refrain from rubber-stamping what Limerick County Council is attempting to do and listen to the community served by Bleach Lough? While the Department should support and expedite the extension of much cleaner water to the other communities which have been denied it for decades, it should allow the community in the Bleach Lough catchment area to maintain its source and the water it enjoys, wants and has confidence in. These objectives are not mutually exclusive and it is possible to implement both of them. Rather than merely giving me a script provided by the Department, will the Minister of State genuinely examine this situation in a flexible manner, intervene and ensure the Department consults the communities involved and the county council so that the genuine democratic wishes and well-being of these communities can be served?

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