Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Government cut Garda stations as well. I am surprised at Fine Gael.

Turning to water supplies in rural areas, the Government has caught many people with this. These people are the so-called Irish Water customers and have an Irish Water meter outside their front door. I have seen many of them in recent months. There are many of them in rural areas. The Government has caught all these rural dwellers, which Deputy O'Donovan claims to be so concerned about, into the Irish Water net. People in rural areas who are on wells and group water schemes see the carrot of the water conservation grant for what it is, a carrot. That is why many of them who have their own septic tanks have not applied for it. Those people see what is coming.

For the record, during the debate on the septic tank legislation I pressed the then Minister, Commissioner Hogan, in the Chamber and outside in respect of the need to change the group sewerage schemes, improve the grant level and bring it up to at least the level of the group water scheme grant. He did that and I gave him credit for doing so. Deputy O'Donovan said that this is the first time in the history of the State that the State has given grants to people in rural areas. This shows how ignorant he is about what has been happening previously in this country. Grants have been available to sink and improve wells for as long as I can remember, and rightly so.

If the Government has an extra €130 million floating about that it can take from social protection I would prefer to see it being used in the best way possible. Rather than give it to people who do not need to save a drop of water, the Government could use part of it for well grants for people in rural areas or to improve the subvention to the group water schemes, which should continue. These are the facts. We believe the Government should put the money into real conservation measures or use it to fix some of the leaks. Can the Minister imagine what some of the county councils could do with €130 million? Imagine if those on Tipperary County Council heard tomorrow morning that under service level agreements they would have an extra €130 million or even €10 million to fix leaks around Nenagh or Borrisokane? What if the same applied to Laois County Council for Mountmellick or Rathdowney? Let us consider the improvements they could make given the results they can produce with €1 million, €2 million or €3 million. That is what should happen to reduce the amount of leaks. The Government could use some of the money to improve the grant scheme for wells and the subvention for group water schemes. I am surprised that Deputy O'Donovan did not know that but then again he did what he always does. He ran into the Chamber, spoke for everyone in the Chamber and assumed everyone's position for them.

See this speech in context