Robert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There is no question that water has become the totem around which people's frustrations about all the cutbacks have been hung. It is a huge pity that the introduction of Irish Water has been such a disaster up to this point. In that regard, I commend the Minister, Deputy Kelly, on the work he has done.

He has tried to straighten this out to the maximum degree and I commend him for the work done in that regard. If we can get to a situation where raw sewage, as mentioned by Deputy Michael McNamara, can be dealt with properly and hygienically, where the pipework in this city can be replaced and where we no longer have from 40% to 50% of water leaking into the ground, this will have been a good day's work, but there is no doubt that there is a great deal of work to be done by the new entity, Irish Water. I am glad that the Minister and the chief executive of Ervia recognise the huge amount of work that must be done.

I would like to make some suggestions for Irish Water. I have faced huge frustration in trying to deal with it on minor matters of broken pipes and non-functioning sewerage systems. It must put a system in place to deal with these issues. This would best be done through the county councils, even if the staff are technically Irish Water staff. It should be possible for anybody to ring the county council and be put through to the relevant official to have his or her problem dealt with quickly. This must be done and it would help to establish confidence that Irish Water is working for the people. It would be very helpful if we could get to that stage. Will the Minister try to ensure we reach a situation where when one rings the county council, one will not just be redirected to Irish Water to make a complaint which will then come back through the county council?

See this speech in context