Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ar an gcéad dul síos, gabhaim buíochas leis an gCeann Comhairle agus na daoine atá ag obair ina oifig for facilitating the selection of this Topical Issue matter.

We do not want to see another children's hospital saga. We in Tipperary are proud people and we are not anti-Dublin, but we think this project is daft. I thank Liam Minihan of Fight the Pipe campaign and I thank Independent councillor, Séamie Morris, and Emma Kennedy for her excellent report and analysis on this. Media reports have indicated that the cost of the project will exceed Irish Water's estimate of €1.3 billion in the national development plan and it is waiting for the tender document to come in.

I am disappointed that the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government is not here. This is no disrespect to the Minister of State, and I wish him well in his new portfolio. As a Green Party Minister of State, I hope he will look at this and accept that it involves too much interruption to our landscape, going through people's lands, affecting the flora and fauna and all the different issues. He might get some of his colleagues in the Green Party who are serial objectors to object to this because it is daft.

The first thing that should be done is fix the leaky pipes. Of every litre of water that goes into the pipework in Dublin, 57% leaks before it gets to the houses or businesses. Some Third World countries, such as India, have had major investment in fixing leaks and they are able to do it, but we cannot do it in Ireland. I am told that Irish Water is all but bust. Many projects throughout the country, whether they be water and sewerage schemes or providing water supply to areas that need new borewells, cannot proceed. Irish Water has not got a cent. It was in serious financial difficulty even before the Covid crisis.

We are going into this project as we went into the children's hospital project - blindfolded, hands behind our backs, gagged and everything else. The original cost for the children's hospital was €400 million and it is now approaching €3 billion. The original cost for this project was €1.3 billion. I can guarantee it will not be done for €2 billion and to do what? - to pump water from Tipperary all the way to Dublin, through your county, a Cheann Comhairle.

There will be serious pressure on this new pipeline. I could walk inside the pipe which has an enormous diameter. Imagine the pressure and the valves unable to slow down that pressure as they feed into a faulty weak disintegrated pipe system in Dublin with old pipes, lead, asbestos and you name it. There will be water breaks all over the place. It will be like someone dropped some kind of a bomb on the city.

I appeal to the Minister of State to stop this madness before it goes ahead. I salute the people who are opposed to this, not because they are anti-Dublin. I come from Tipperary, a county rich in resources. We also have many borewells. The entire town of Clonmel is supplied by mountain streams and borewells. Every other town and village, and most farms and private houses are supplied by borewells. Dublin must be the same and as is Wicklow, which is not far out the road. There are plenty of resources there to get this water locally. It is a fantasy project by the previous Government and fantasies are not good. The Government will need to make a U-turn on this before it is too late.

Why does Irish Water not consider desalination of seawater? Surely the new Government can be innovative with its new ideas and green energies. It is telling us all to retrofit houses, and do this, that and everything else. Why does it not examine this? It should stop this pipe now. Compulsory purchase orders, CPOs, and notices to treat will be issued. The land will never be the same again. There are problems whenever there is that kind of major excavation of the land. It is fine when a road is made because the road is made compacted, but the pipe will always keep sinking through the land. There will be considerable damage to the flora and fauna, and to the rich heritage in the lands it goes through.

I appeal to the Minister of State to use his muscle in this Government and show cause and have a proper investigation, taking into account the Kennedy analysis.

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