Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister. Earlier today, Deputy Michael D. Higgins and I tabled motions under Standing Order 31 requesting the Adjournment of the Dáil to discuss this extremely important issue relating to the well-being and health of people in Galway. It would have been far more satisfactory if we had engaged in a debate under Standing Order 31 with the Minister and his colleague, the Minister for Health and Children, rather than dealing with the matter via this set-piece debate on the Adjournment. We had no other option but to raise the matter on the Adjournment when our motions under Standing Order 31 were refused. I have every confidence in the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government but he will read from a prepared script that will be relevant to the subject but will not provide answers in respect of some of the questions Deputy Michael D. Higgins and I intend to pose.

The Minister is aware that the waters of the Corrib are seriously polluted and, as a result, 90,000 people in Galway city, Oughterard, Killannin, Moycullen, Oranmore, Maree, Derrydonnell, Athenry, Corrandulla, Annaghdown, Headford, Tuam and elsewhere have been affected. The Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs gave an interview in respect of this matter earlier this evening on national radio and he appeared to indicate that €21 million has been available since 2002 for water treatment works in Galway city and county. He more or less laid the blame at the door of local authorities for not taking up the offer of this money. Will the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche, indicate why that €21 million was not spent in Galway, where the water supplies of city and half the county are sourced from the 60,000 acre Lough Corrib, which has been seriously polluted with the cryptosporidium virus?

It is no wonder that the Corrib is polluted, particularly as a result of the Government's failure to provide sewage treatment plants and sewerage schemes in towns and villages which surround it such as Headford, Claregalway, Oughterard, Cornamona and Clonbur. The Government neglected its duty by not providing the necessary infrastructure to which I refer. We have been warning about the danger of pollution in the Corrib for many years.

There appears to be an attitude that this problem in Galway should be hushed up. It is a serious problem and well over 100 people were identified as having contracted the virus and several were hospitalised. However, several hundred more people, whose immune systems were better able to combat the infection, were also affected. The virus is extremely dangerous for the elderly, the young and people who are receiving chemotherapy. People who live in the affected area cannot touch the water, drink it, use ice cubes made from it or brush their teeth. The Government's attitude appears to be that the matter should be played down.

Deputy Paul McGrath tabled a parliamentary question earlier today in which he asked the Minister for Health and Children the number of deaths that have occurred over the past ten years from the presence of cryptosporidium in public water supplies, and the groups vulnerable to serious injury or death from this organism. The Minister replied to the question but did not provide any information about the number of deaths. From my research, I am aware that a number of deaths have resulted from people being infected with this virus in recent years.

Why is it not possible to face up to the fact that we are faced with a serious crisis? Will the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government outline the steps being taking in Galway to put in place the necessary infrastructure to facilitate the filtration and treatment of drinking water of the population of Galway city and the surrounding area? This problem will not go away by itself, particularly since it has been established that the Corrib is polluted. What steps is the Department taking to ensure the problem in the affected area, in which I live, will be remedied as soon as possible in order that proper water supplies will be restored to the people who reside there?

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