Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

——the State has a responsibility and obligation. If somebody living in a rural area draws his or her water from a well or other private supply and it is polluted by the activity of someone else the State has a duty of care to protect the right to water of that person. It is up to the State, through water pollution laws, etc, to ensure those people are protected.

The reality is that in the vast majority of cases, people's water is delivered either through a public water supply or a group water scheme. Today, we are in the business of making the legislation which will govern the way in which public authorities deliver the water supply and the framework of group water schemes in the delivery of a water supply.

There is an obligation on the State to ensure people have access to clean and potable water. It is not an unreasonable position to take and in this day and age people ought to have a right to a supply of water in the first instance, and of the water being of sufficient quality for domestic use in the second instance.

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