Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 14, between lines 4 and 5, to insert the following:

""fundamental right of the individual to access to sufficient, safe, acceptable and accessible water" includes the right to access to water which is free from contamination that is likely to cause injury to human health;".

This goes to the heart of the problem that arose in Galway, the absence of a legal right to water from this legislation and Irish law. This Bill should include the fundamental right of the individual to access to sufficient, safe, acceptable and accessible water for personal and domestic use, having due regard to international legal standards, and subject to any necessary conditions or limitations that may be prescribed by law. Where a local authority is making a strategic water plan, among the matters that the authority must consider is the right of each person within the functional area of the authority to have access to water services. The amendment defines the fundamental right of the individual as including the right to access to water which is free from contamination that is likely to cause injury to human health. I moved those amendments on Committee Stage on 22 November 2006. On that occasion the Minister dismissed them, saying I was trying to make provision for "an eccentric millionaire who might buy John Lennon's island in Clew Bay and decide to build a palatial premises there" and that the State could not be expected to guarantee a right of water in such circumstances. I pointed out to him that was not the circumstance I envisaged and that although this country has plenty of water, too much of it at times, there is no right to water in our law.

As a consequence, one ends up in situations, as I said on Committee Stage, where if the quality of water supplied through a public system to households is deficient, if the pressure of water supplied through a public system to households is insufficient or if one wakes up one morning with no water supply until lunch time, there is no legal right of redress against the public authority. I went on to argue that under Irish law, the polluters of our water system have more legal rights and protection than the consumers of the water supplied through the public system. That must be addressed.

We have before the House legislation that deals with the provision of water and delivery of water services. This is a fundamental issue, that the people of this country are entitled to a water supply and good quality water, and that right should be enshrined in law. The unfortunate people of Galway have no redress. They cannot sue anyone. For two months their public authority and the State has been delivering water to their homes that could poison them and that has made 200 people in Galway seriously ill. That is wrong, and it wrong that those who cannot drink the water from the public supply have no legal redress.

I say this because the Bill places obligations on householders and the owners of premises regarding their management of the water supply. Under this legislation, a householder who is wasting water can be prosecuted. A garda can walk into a private home under this legislation to see if a person is wasting water by running a hose in the back garden on a hot summer's day and can take that person to court. That householder can be liable for a major fine and the cost of the recovery of the water. In some sections of the Bill there is provision for fines of up to €15 million. It is not unreasonable that the law should prevent the abuse of water when there is a water shortage but if we are putting in place legislation that imposes on the individual householder a legal responsibility for the management and conservation of water which is punishable by large fines and forms of restitution to the public purse, it is then essential that there is a corresponding right provided to the public to a reliable, safe water supply.

If we had that legal right, the lethargy and neglect between the Minister, his Department and the local authority in Galway for the past five years would not have happened because, if there was a legal obligation imposed on the local authority and, by extension, the State through the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, we would not have a situation where people are suffering while the Minister and the mayor of Galway city engage in a blame exercise. The people of Galway cannot consume the water and we know from studies carried out by the media and the Environmental Protection Agency that up to 20% of the public water supply is as vulnerable as the water in Galway. This problem may be repeated.

We must provide a legal right to water in this legislation. When we concluded the debate on the issue addressed in the three amendments I am now proposing, the Minister gave a general indication that we had made a good case. He understood that we were not just talking about the billionaire who might buy John Lennon's island.

See this speech in context