Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan, Independent)

I too support the three amendments, in particular, that the 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.

I will give an example from my constituency of Cavan-Monaghan where this has become a major problem recently. There has been a problem with a number of our group water schemes for which people have taken responsibility and put in place at great expense. The schemes to which I refer are the Dernakesh, Crosserlough and Kill in County Cavan and the group water scheme in my area, Glasslough-Teeholland. The problem was a foul smell which was chemical-like.

I have a number of concerns, including how these matters are reported. Had the users of the schemes not complained for at least three weeks from mid-March, nothing would have happened. When one adds chemicals to water, there is no doubt there is an impact on health. I am very concerned that nobody liaised with the users of any of these group water schemes to inform them as to whether there would be knock-on effects in regard to health. Sometimes when bad water comes through a system, the advice on radio is to boil the water. That is fine if the water supply has been contaminated by bacteria. In this instance, however, the problem related to chemicals and the boiling of water would have absolutely no effect. The chemicals would remain in the water regardless of how many times one boiled it.

This problem could affect a number of the food producing industries. One must bear in mind that there are many food producing industries in the Cavan-Monaghan area. In particular, I refer to Silverhill Ducklings, the mushroom industry and the numerous bakeries in the area. These industries depend on clean water. Since young children are particularly susceptible to injuries to their health as a result of drinking contaminated water, more decisive action should be taken.

Most of these group water schemes have employed private companies to monitor the water but, ultimately, overall monitoring is the responsibility of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the county council. The problem in this case was a faulty supply of chemicals which had originated in Ringaskiddy in Cork. The storage area in Cork had been changed and this caused the problem. The company in Cork sent its product to Northern Ireland where the company monitoring the water quality sourced the chemicals. Was information deliberately withheld from people? People should be told exactly what is happening. It was only through word of mouth that those involved in one scheme discovered that another one had similar problems. Is this occurring in other parts of the country without people knowing? Have people accepted the fact that we have poor water quality and now buy water?

In this instance, the county councils accepted that they should supply proper drinking water to the food industries, the schools and at three locations in the Glasslough-Teeholland scheme.

The use of chemicals allows for human error where somebody may put an incorrect mix into the water. What plan of action is in place to deal with such a situation or where faulty chemicals are introduced into the system? There should be a plan to deal with these situations. I call for a faster and better response.

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