John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

I gave an interview after my speech to engineers. I was talking about rainwater harvesting and the recycling of water, which is essential, and the conservation of water.

My comments were made in the context of climate change. The EPA report to which I referred indicates that as a result of climate change there will be higher precipitation in certain areas of the country and drought in others. I clearly indicated that we must ensure we treat water as a valuable resource. Treated water costs money and people in this country are already paying for water. As already stated, there has been no change with regard to the latter. The commercial sector and, quite controversially, schools are paying for water. Some schools have done tremendous work in this area and have reduced their costs to a substantial degree by investing in rainwater harvesting. This underlines the value of the green schools initiative. The investment in this regard was made in the aftermath of direct assistance from my Department. A school can save up to 28,000 litres of water by making the kind of investment to which I refer. We must impress on people the message that water is a resource which must be reserved.

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