Deirdre Clune (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

What funding will the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government provide to upgrade the water services infrastructure in the Cork area? The severe weather experienced during the past two winters highlighted the poor state of the water infrastructure across the State. Cork city experienced several particularly difficult weeks with its water supplies in December 2009 and December 2010. Following flooding of the Lee Road waterworks in November 2009, most of the city's north side and parts of the south side were without water supplies for a considerable period. While the local authority stepped up to the mark in providing alternative supplies, it was an emergency situation which highlighted several problems with the water supply infrastructure that need to be rectified.

A commitment must be made to the Lee Road waterworks improvement scheme to upgrade the waterworks and ensure the quality of its water supply is fully compliant with the EU drinking water directive and meets environmental requirements. Cork City Council has prepared a response to questions from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government on this scheme and a report is already on the Minister's desk.

A connection between the city and county supplies is needed. When the supplies were cut off, it was discovered there was no interconnector between the two supplies even though they were just a short distance apart. Such a set-up is ridiculous in this day and age. A commitment to funding the building of such an interconnector needs to be made.

A site for a new storage reservoir has been identified. In the past several weeks we saw how the existing reservoir system does not have sufficient capacity. The water mains network is also in very poor repair with many leaking old pipes, exacerbated by the severe weather, losing up to 60% of supply. The old cast iron pipes also tend to discolour the water.

The infrastructure needed to upgrade the system was identified as far back as 1999, when I was first elected to Cork City Council, but nothing has been done yet. The Minister has made a commitment to the upgrade in the past year. When will it begin and how will it be achieved? If water metering is introduced and if people are charged in respect of the water they use, there will be riots unless proper water conservation measures are put in place. People will not be prepared to pay for water that is leaking away into the ground. Will the Minister of State indicate the level of progress that has been achieved in respect of the various projects in the Cork region which have been identified by the local authority as necessary in order to facilitate the provision of clean drinking or potable water there?

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