Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We cannot allow 22,000 people to be stuck on boil water notices indefinitely.

6 o’clock

We will not stand over a situation where water supplies for 945,000 people require urgent remedial attention. We cannot afford to lose into the ground nearly 50% of all treated water. We cannot threaten job creation and recovery by keeping the drinking water supply for the greater Dublin area on a knife edge. None of this is acceptable.

The old system, based around 34 different local authorities each trying to provide water services out of annual grants from central Government, has failed our country. That is not because of any lack of dedication by local authority staff. It is because water planning stopped at county boundaries. There were no economies of scale.

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