Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

I am glad to have this opportunity on behalf of Fine Gael to move this motion which provides that we will carry out certain actions that will ensure we have a better response in future to crises, such as the recent flooding, frost and snow crises, than we have seen in recent weeks from the Government. We should learn from the experience of the past few months and put in place the necessary measures to ensure we are better prepared to respond on behalf of our people. Politics is about people. In recent months people suffered tremendous hardship as a result of the severe weather; houses had to be vacated and stock and property were badly damaged during the recent flooding. People suffered great inconvenience and the response was haphazard throughout the country, despite the best efforts of the front line services.

The Government amendment to this motion is a reiteration of what the Minister cynically announced yesterday on account of the Fine Gael motion. He said he would reallocate some moneys for the purpose of water conservation. He had no answer last week, but over the weekend an answer developed. In my view it was a cynical exercise to make that announcement rather than address the issue of what he intended to do in the House tonight. The Minister and the Government continue to operate on the basis that in the short term they cannot provide additional funds for local authorities and front line services to deal effectively with the crisis. Nor are they planning for the future to ensure that in the years ahead we will be better able to cope with the problems, particularly those relating to water. The Government cannot continue to bail out financial institutions but have no money for anything else. Last November, for example, when we discussed the flooding crisis, an indication was given that we would have an early warning system in various places similar to what is in place in the United Kingdom. We were to have a better website and better information with regard to flood warnings. I have seen no developments or initiatives taken since that indicate any urgency about these matters.

The difficulties experienced by the country following the floods last November, the severe weather in December and January and the water shortage crisis ongoing today have been compounded by a Government that has lost all capacity to plan and act quickly in an emergency. The ministerial decisions of this Government have been reduced to a bookkeeping exercise, as Ministers have been reduced to just signing off on funding or cuts in expenditure. The Government has lost the ability to see a problem with its own structures, let alone identify a solution. This is a symptom of a Government that has become tired and lazy in its term of office and it is unlikely to solve the problem in the coming years.

The Government never prepared a national plan to deal with severe weather. This is why its initial response to the severe weather took so long to organise. Despite numerous attempts by Fine Gael to obtain a copy of the national plan to deal specifically with severe weather, which was committed to by the Office of Emergency Planning several years ago, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government confirmed that the Government did not have such a plan. This explains the Government's initial slow response to the weather crisis and its initial confusion when it finally met. The Office of Emergency Planning's website clearly states, "A national framework for response to severe weather emergencies is being developed to ensure that all existing local severe weather plans are appropriately coordinated and linked." A national crisis requires a national response. It is now evident that no severe weather crisis plan was drafted and that the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government attempted to cobble together a response three weeks into the freeze when people were already suffering.

The three lead agencies, the Garda, the HSE and local authorities operate within an inherently flawed system. There is a framework which provides guidance to local authorities, the HSE and the Garda on responding to major emergencies. However, that in no way constitutes a national plan. There are not 34 micro climates across Ireland. The same problems were experienced widely across the country during the flooding and big freeze. Logically, this requires a national response and national co-ordination. It is wrong to suggest there are just three lead agencies. If the local authorities are the lead authorities, then there is a total of 36 lead agencies, including the HSE and the Garda. That is a recipe for disaster. The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government must be always the lead agency into which the local authorities can feed information. Allowing local authorities call a national emergency means the reaction around the country to a crisis will be always fragmented.

Fine Gael wishes to express its admiration for the valiant efforts of local authorities and their staff who, despite cutbacks of 12% in their budgets last year and the termination of the contracts and employment of many people, dealt with the weather crisis during the holiday period despite the lack of leadership at national level. What should be in place is a plan that specifically outlines how the Government co-ordinates a national response. A national plan should clearly identify the following: specific named routes to be cleared and gritted as a first priority; access to airports to be cleared; ports to be kept accessible in their order of priority; major hospitals to remain accessible; ambulance and medical evacuation contingencies; identify specific public transport routes to be serviced as a priority if bus and rail services fail; the use of military transport to move people if public transport fails; and identify regions where the population is isolated and vulnerable and assign military helicopters and trucks accordingly. This is a real plan, but none of these measures was instigated by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government during the recent crisis because it did not realise there was a national crisis. The Minister for Transport abandoned ship when the country needed action and leadership over the Christmas period.

In the time remaining to me I would like to deal with the issue of water problems. My colleagues, Deputy O'Dowd, Fine Gael spokesman on transport, and Deputy McEntee will deal in their contributions with the problems concerning roads and other problems. It is appropriate to examine why, in 2010, Ireland can suffer from such massive systems failures that have resulted in prolonged water shortages when the country is still recovering from record levels of flooding. The answer is simple, a lack of reform. The policy of Fianna Fail led Governments of simply throwing money at a problem, instead of analysing what has gone wrong with a system and how it can be fixed, can be blamed for our inefficient, outdated and fragmented water supply system. Fianna Fail has stood over a system that saw 43% of all drinking water lost through leakage, before the recent cold weather caused the problems affecting supplies today. What Fine Gael proposes is to radically shake up the entire system to ensure a dependable, clean and cost effective water supply for everyone.

Radical change on how we provide water is urgently needed. There is a way to do this. Currently, Ireland's 29 county councils and five city councils are responsible for the management of water infrastructure in their areas. They all apply for funding to Government for a slice of the €4.75 billion for capital works promised under the latest national development plan. These 34 water authorities then all work away on their own projects within their localities, with very little interaction or co-ordination between authorities. The recent flooding crisis in Cork, which caused severe damage to Cork City Council's main pumping station, demonstrated why better integration with neighbouring water infrastructure is necessary. Fine Gael proposes, in its document NewERA which was compiled by my colleague Deputy Coveney, a new State utility company called Irish Water. The Minister stated recently that the Fine Gael proposals were not costed, but they are costed. We can get further enlightenment on how to draw greater resources to resolving our water problem by taking the opportunity to examine that document. Many of the problems associated with the current system, which is fragmented on a county by county basis, would be overcome by having a central utility company responsible for water provision. The Fine Gael plan is progressive and seeks to fix the current system and to provide a better quality of service to homeowners and businesses alike. In addition, a single company could achieve significant economies of scale by planning for water investments across the country. Water quality is a separate issue, but I will not go into that now.

The current national development plan commits €4.75 billion to water infrastructural investment over the period 2007-2013. However, the current financial crisis is having an impact on water investment. Last year the capital provision for water services infrastructure was cut by €60 million to €500 million from what was envisaged in the 2009 Estimates. New investment in water infrastructure in the future is unlikely to come from Government sources. Therefore a new way must be found to attract additional resources for the resolution of this matter. The €300 million the Minister announced yesterday to be provided over three years to deal with water conservation will mean the work on all the pipe networks the Minister wishes to replace to eliminate the leaks will be slow, cumbersome and will not happen for years.

Additional resources are required to fix the pipes and ensure there is good-quality water in the taps and that people have a good standard of living. That people cannot depend on their supply of water in the post-Celtic tiger era is an indictment of the economic policies that have been pursued in the past ten or 12 years. Fine Gael's water policy, if implemented, would decrease the national debt by between €3 billion and €5 billion depending on the valuation of the existing network. If it were taken on board, it would free up resources in the local authority system. Financing would be achieved through State equity and commercial debt. The policy would provide an essential water system of good quality to those who need it.

It is not acceptable that there was a cut of €173 million in the allocation for the road network in 2009. This was done without a whimper by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley. Investment in the road network must be considered urgently in 2010. I look forward to the Minister's Department and the Department of Transport receiving submissions from the local authorities. I ask the Minister to take an interest in these matters bearing in mind the funding required by local authorities to carry out the necessary works. He should ensure the submissions from the local authorities on road reconstruction and rehabilitation will be considered such that we will accept there is a problem with some local and regional roads. Access is critical to people. It is a prerequisite that people be put first, and we should be able to reallocate resources to ensure this is ultimately the case.

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