Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In all my time here, I do not recall any instance where all of the local Deputies managed to give notice of the same Topical Issue matter, without any co-ordination at all. What does that tell us? It tells us that people in our constituency have endured a nightmare for the past week, while the rest of the country was celebrating the good weather. These are not water restrictions; there is no water at a location within a 30 km radius of our city centre. Where would you get it? There are parts of Africa that do not stand over such inadequate infrastructure. That is why we are here. That is why we all gave notice of this matter without checking with each other, because our constituents have been severely affected, and not only now. As the other Deputies said, this has been an ongoing problem which has reached acute levels in recent times.

Frankly, I found it insulting to listen to Irish Water representatives on the radio earlier in the week telling us that there is a problem, demand is exceeding supply, and to conserve water and not to run power hoses. This patently failed to deal with the issue of why this particular problem was occurring in this part of Skerries. Meanwhile a local festival was going on in another part of town where there were no water restrictions or water shortages. This is an infrastructural deficit as a result of poor planning decisions, which must be examined, and account must be taken of this in the light of the other development going on in the area. On top of this, we need to identify a solution because this is an ongoing issue. Residents familiar with the area have pointed to the groundwater studies undertaken in the area years ago and the substantial Thomastown aquifer near the reservoir, which could be tapped into to provide an alternative groundwater supply and end this nightmare for young families and older residents in our community.

See this speech in context