Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Statistics were released to me in a response to a parliamentary question last December by the Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, regarding the amount paid to group water scheme operators which confirmed the absolute need to introduce exemptions in any future water charging regime. Where are the exemptions? My parliamentary question showed there was a massive drop in grant payments issued by the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government to group water schemes and private well owners from 2011 to 2016. In 2011, the Department funded all local authorities to administer the rural water programme to the tune of €70 million but by 2016 that amount had dropped to just under €21 million. That is an astonishing gap of almost €50 million which needs to be explained by the Minister, given it has happened during all this crisis and all the "can't pay, won't pay" debate.

In Tipperary alone, during the same period, there was a reduction in payments under the rural water programme from €1.953 million in 2011 to €718,000 in 2016, which is a cut of €1.2 million. We can see from the data provided that between 2015 and 2016 the amount paid to private well operators in Tipperary was down from €92,905 to €71,407. Kick in the teeth after kick in the teeth - that is what they are getting from the Government. This is the cause of huge frustration within rural society, particularly in the light of the recent proposals to impose an additional de facto water tax on this sector which is ostensibly aimed at maintaining and improving the current water infrastructure. The figures prove that more and more responsibility was being put on the group water scheme operators while less and less support was being given to them from the Department while the debate was raging here. Any national conversation we have on the water charging issue must prioritise parity of esteem for this vitally important sector within rural Ireland.

We also have other problems building in terms of the management of the water resource. In 2016, I asked the Minister to explain this and we now have the figures. These people have been cut and cut. Here we are tonight talking about all we did and did not do, and all the Minister's aspirations. I hear it said 92% will not pay anything and the remaining 8% might be penalised, but they will get time to fix their leaks. The group schemes have to go out and fix their own leaks. They mind the water because they know how costly it is. The man who has a well in his back yard which gets polluted must pay for his filters, must pay for the pumping costs and must replace the pump for €3,000 or €4,000. Nobody gives a toss about him in this country, apparently.

These are proud people, quiet people. The Minister will remember the grey vote that came out before with the attack on the medical cards. They could come out again very easily because they are disgusted with what has gone on in the past couple of years. They are disgusted with the people who do not want to pay anything and who have now won the battle. They are disgusted with the main political parties twisting and turning, and all their PR and stunts. They pay everything. They pay their general taxation too and they get nothing for it. They have to repair their own pumps and their own wells and look after their own children. If the wells get contaminated with effluent, as they do, they must be treated and sorted out but the grant aid has been diminished by the same Government.

This has been a monster from day one, created by Phil Hogan and then perpetrated by the former Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly - the AK-47 - who did not even have the good manners to come in tonight to contribute to the House. He ran away, hiding like a scalded cat. He is pontificating on what he can do. This is a disgrace perpetrated on the people of rural Ireland, who have carried the can for everything and who pay for roads and everything else. We in the Rural Independent Group intend to support those people. We are going to fight tooth and nail in order that the Minister gives them some semblance of respect for the way they pay for the provision of their own water not just for themselves, but for neighbours, schools and other places. They have done this since the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The pioneers of the water schemes sank their own wells and now they are discarded as if they do not exist. We have all this talk about fairness and equality. We had a referendum two years ago on equality for all. Where is the equality for the people I represent? The Minister represents a few of them as there are a few out his way also.

See this speech in context