Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I have seen it many times. I have seen a ludicrous situation whereby people within ten miles of Ballinasloe only had their water restored yesterday. In some of the new housing developments - some of which are now under the remit of NAMA - the pipes burst and the council engineers had no alternative but to fix them to allow the water to flow out into the countryside, which gives an idea of the horrendous trouble the people on the ground had. I attach no blame to them; they did the best they could. The provision of water is one of the most important aspects of family, development etc. Somebody took their eye off the ball. Fine Gael is advocating installing a meter is outside every house, which will conserve water in itself. However, the pipes are so bad at the moment they could not take a meter in several places and that issue also needs to be addressed.

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