Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

We should have same-day testing, but even if we do not, there is surely a way, when discharges occur, that it can be announced immediately. There is a problem if we do not know when there is a discharge and it cannot be announced publicly. At the very least, the public can be made aware of the incident.

Representatives of Irish Water gave testimony before the joint committee recently. They indicated that it needed €18 billion to rehabilitate water infrastructure. It is clearly not getting that kind of money. It stated large-scale service failures were unavoidable and that they were happening. There is not enough money going into rehabilitating water infrastructure and it was exacerbated by misguided austerity cuts after 2008, when the already inadequate expenditure went from €423 million per year to €382 million under the Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government. That pattern continued under the Fine Gael-Labour Party Government and spending has only begun to climb up again recently. However, it is still inadequate. We need more investment, as well as early warning systems.

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