Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for his reply and welcome the fact there has been a slight improvement in water quality as noted by the EPA in its reports. However, I have very serious concerns about the fact that more than half of the instances of serious pollution were caused by municipal discharges. The water framework directive was introduced more than five years ago but Ireland faces potential fines of millions of euro if we are not in line with that directive by 2015.

I ask the Minister to assure the House that water quality is his number one environmental priority and that he will put the necessary resources in place to improve the standard of municipal waste water at the 21 treatment plants in the country. I further ask him to ensure we protect the quality of groundwater by targeting agricultural waste and septic tanks.

I also ask the Minister to assure consumers that their tap water is safe to drink and that there will be no more instances such as those which occurred in County Galway recently.

See this speech in context