Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

With the agreement of the House, I will share my time with Deputy Anthony Lawlor.

Can I be the first Government backbencher to welcome the announcement by the Taoiseach and Minister for Finance and commend them for their great work in the last couple of years to get a deal on the promissory notes? This is a great step for the country.

I am pleased to speak on this important topic. Few things in this world are as important as the constant availability of clean water. Of all the technological innovations of the 20th century, the introduction of a clean water supply into family homes and businesses was, perhaps, the most significant. Such is our understanding of the importance of clean water for health, sanitation, food production and a number of other uses, that charitable organisations exist with the single purpose of securing clean water supplies in less developed nations.

In Ireland today, we take the availability of clean water for granted. We forget the process collected water goes through before it reaches our homes, safe for human consumption. On rare occasions, however, an event suddenly brings to mind how precious the supply is and how easily it can be disrupted. Being from Galway, I recall the cryptosporidium crisis of 2007 which shut down large parts of the water supply network in the city and county from St. Patrick's Day until Galway Race week at the end of July, and people in Galway were advised not to drink tap water. That had a very negative effect on householders and on the wider economy, with many businesses suffering. Tourism is, of course, an important part of the economy of Galway.

Cryptosporidium was chiefly caused by lack of investment in the water and waste water network. Government failed the people, at local and central level. We can trace the chronic lack of investment, with the corresponding waste through leakage of treated water, to the failure of the national Government to introduce a stable funding source for local government following the removal of domestic rates in the 1970s.

Thankfully, the cryptosporidium crisis has been consigned to the past and the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Phil Hogan, working with the Minister of State with responsibility for NewERA, Deputy Fergus O'Dowd, has, in a short period of time, undertaken a major investment programme in Galway. An upgraded Terryland water treatment plant has ensured a quality supply of water for Galway city and its environs and a new reservoir at Tonabrocky which serves the city and its environs is under construction and well advanced. The city's Mutton Island treatment plant has been developed over a number of years and there has been a €20 million investment in water and waste water projects in Connemara.

To fund this, a new model is required, and part of the funding is coming from the European Investment Bank which works for member states and recognises that, whatever the economic climate, investment in the water supply network is crucial. The Bill, however, goes further to ensure a new continual stream of investment in our water services. It creates Uisce Éireann, or Irish Water, a new subsidiary of Bord Gáis that will co-ordinate the delivery of water services. Rather than having dozens of different authorities doing different things in different ways, we will have one clear point of responsibility for the provision of our water supply nationwide.

The country has suffered over a number of years from under-investment in water. When I joined the local authority in 2004, my fellow councillors and I received a list of the projects included in the water service investment programme. It detailed every town and village in the county and gave the year when works were to take place. A year later, we would find that very little had been done, another list would be drawn up, and so on. The previous Government did much work and investment and this has been continued under the Minister, Deputy Hogan.

Deputy Clare Daly mentioned leaks. We have a history of leaks across the country. In the city and county of Galway, however, great strides have been made to combat the problem of leaks. We have seen investment by the Minister in leak detection. In Galway city, for example, there is a district metering programme which divides the city into districts so the local authority can better know where leaks are occurring and deal with them.

I welcome the Bill and the fact that it will provide for clearer investment opportunities in water and wastewater services in the future.

There are many other issues people have mentioned that I would agree with about the need to improve rain water harvesting.

See this speech in context