Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There is a huge number of villages and towns around the country which are in need of public waste water treatment plants. They need them for a number of reasons. In east Galway, where we have tourism, we need to make sure that our waterways and fishing ways are unpolluted. There is only one way we will do that, and that is by making sure that we have proper public waste water treatment plants in place and that they are managed properly over time. I am hugely fearful for all of these private waste water treatment plants. While some of them are being managed now - some are not - in ten to 15 years' time, when the plants begin to break down, who will be there to pick up the tab and pay for them?

When we talk about this, we need to do so in a holistic way. We need to be truthful with everybody in this country about what we are doing here. Nothing we will do will be done for nothing. There has to be investment, and the investment has to be made in a way that is fair and delivers both water and waste water treatment plants around our country. If we continue on the path we have taken, we will have nothing but trouble in our country. We need a properly funded framework to deliver water and waste water. We also need to make sure that we have a proper network of metering in our country because anyone who was ever involved in the delivery of water in any group water scheme in this country knows that if you do not have a meter, you do not know where your water is going and therefore cannot conserve your water. We have to look at this in a reasonable way. Delivering water to houses costs money. It is a scarce and expensive commodity, so we need to make sure we conserve it as best we can. Deputy Kyne mentioned Dublin being without water or at a stage where it would run out of water, and if we allow that to happen in the capital of our country, we are saying very little about our country.

We talk about job creation, the tourism element, which can create so many jobs, and the environment, and they are all tied in with having a proper water and waste water supply. If we do not have them, we will fail to deliver the jobs. We talked this morning about the economy: where it is going and its projections for the future. If we do not have the economic drivers in terms of proper waste water and water services, we will not be able to provide the jobs or attract the industry, and we need to do that. We also need to make sure, especially considering tourism, that there is no raw sewerage going into our bays or rivers, and we need to do that in a very managed way over the next ten years.

We need the money, we need the will to do it, and I believe that within this Dáil we have the people who can do it. However, we must stop making a political football out of something that should not be a political football. We need to get our heads together to make sure we deliver what is best. When we look back on our time here as public representatives, we should be able to say that we made a good stab at it and worked together to get it in place. I suggest that some people who have exercised their minds about the meters should visit some group water schemes, speak to the people who have run these water schemes and talk to them about what getting water out of a tap is all about.

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