Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this issue. It was interesting to listen to the Minister of State's response to the issue raised by Deputy Joe Carey regarding the Ennis water supply. I hope the state-of-the-art sewerage plant scheduled to come on stream next year will be much more successful than the Ringsend plant in my constituency of Dublin South-East where the entire process has been farcical, to say the least.

I will raise two connected and significant issues. First, as reported in the media in the past week, the Ringsend sewage treatment plant is operating at between 20% and 30% above its capacity. I have found it difficult to obtain concrete information, other than a submission to An Bord Pleanála, from Dublin City Council on this matter. It is astonishing that the Minister has claimed population growth in Dublin city could not be predicted. The CSO's prediction of even greater population growth than we have experienced contradicts the Minister's bizarre and ridiculous claim, made on the national broadcaster, that he did not know what population growth was expected in the capital city.

Second, Dublin City Council paid a startling sum of money to the ABA consortium which has operated the Ringsend sewage treatment plant in a shameful fashion. Not only was the sum of €38 million paid out, but it was sanctioned by the Minister who represents the constituency in which the plant is located. It is extraordinary that the Minister who sanctioned this payment has, in press statements and media interviews, called for an investigation into how the payment was made and went wrong. This would be laughable if it were not so serious.

The reason I object to the payment of a substantial sum to the ABA consortium is that it did not honour the contract it signed up to in terms of operating the sewage treatment plant in Ringsend. In response to a recent question I submitted to Dublin City Council, I received an extraordinary update in which the council detailed the short-term remedial works which have been done at the plant since 2006. The company covered channels, installed additional odour control units and improved sludge handling and drying. These steps should have been taken from day one. The plant was sold to the people of Dublin as a state-of-the-art facility in 2003.

The long-term works referred to in the council's reply included the covering of the primary treatment tanks. A sewage treatment plant was built in the centre of a large urban population without the tanks being covered up and Dublin City Council is surprised to learn that an odour was emanating from the facility. The company which constructed the plant clearly did not do what it should have done to ensure it was of an adequate standard to serve the population of Dublin. Having failed to do this work, Dublin City Council did not have the capacity to demand from the company any form of accountability. The ABA consortium should have paid for the remedial works but was instead paid by Dublin City Council to do works it should have done in the first instance. It is a fundamental flaw of the public-private partnership process that the contracts signed do not include penalty clauses. This is a major problem across the board.

I wish Deputy Joe Carey luck regarding the sewage treatment plant in County Clare. I hope it is not the disaster we, in Dublin South-East, have had to endure for the past five years.

See this speech in context