Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is a very serious issue, not just for my own constituency, but for adjoining constituencies north and south of the Border. Last week, the Sunday Independent, in a very important article by Jim Cusack, pointed out that there is significant pollution of the drinking water supply to parts of counties Monaghan and Louth, particularly the River Fane in Dundalk. The article states that up to 60,000 homes are served by water from this lake. The problem is that vile, carcinogenic substances, put in, as the article states, by former or present members of the IRA, are coming into the water. They are poisoning the environment. It has the potential to kill, in terms of the toxicity itself, and to pollute the water supply.

We need to deal with it under two headings. The first is to deal with the public health issue. Will the Minister bring the urgent need to test all the drinking water supplies from these sources to the attention of the Department of Health, his own Department, the EPA and the Northern Ireland authorities? We must be reassured that there is no threat to public health and that neither is there a long-term threat caused by the carcinogens identified by the Sunday Independent, which can affect children in the womb and the genetic material people have at birth. The key issue is to reassure them. Louth County Council reassured the public yesterday on that matter, but there is deep long-term concern about this, because this criminality has been going on for many years. It is an absolute disgrace.

Second, the political solution is for the Minister, the Minister for Justice and Equality, and the Minister for Health to get together with their colleagues in the North, because the pollution in this case is in South Armagh.

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