Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I also thank the Regional Group for bringing forward this very important motion. It is time we got our act together on this, as we need to with housing. I have been involved with this a long time and have seen schemes like Skeheenarinky, where it took 50 years for delivery. It was so slow the county sent a report to the relevant Department and it had to wait six months for a reply. The process of going up and down continued, taking six months each time. It is tomfoolery and now Irish Water has been introduced into the mix. It is a merry-go-round and the process has got slower.

There is a figure in the motion and there is a similar number in Tipperary. Sewage is destroying rivers and farmers are then accused of doing this, when the vast majority of them do their very best. They are good in dealing with the environment and nurture it. They resent being blackguarded. I have seen people from the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, standing on my bridge in Newcastle, and I told them to go 400 yd below the plant, where raw sewage is going into the river. Along with Newcastle there is Burncourt, Golden, Donaskeagh, Mullinahone and Grangemockler. I could stay naming them all day. They might have a septic tank, perhaps bigger than that of a domestic house, but where 200 houses may have to go. There may be no sewage treatment at all and it goes straight into rivers. It is criminal and the EPA will not challenge the county councils. Its personnel come out quickly to anybody else if there is an accident.

I resent a previous speaker talking about smelly water running through a village. Does she know about it? She does not. The people in rural areas are being stigmatised. It was the same with septic tank charges that were introduced. Most people I know of want to keep their septic tanks working right but the arms of the State are incompetent and too unwieldy or slow. There is another plank with Irish Water.

Public private partnerships were good and delivered schemes in my area, including in Ardfinnan, Clogheen and Ballyporeen, as well as Cahir town, but they are at capacity and we cannot build another house in those villages. We need to look seriously at this. We must get real and have departmental officials cutting out half the red tape. There are multiple stages and Government politicians announce each of them but nothing is happening. People have been so frustrated but they want to pay their way. All the private houses must pay for their water, particularly if they have pumps and their own septic tank systems.

The idea that water is free is a myth because we know it is so hard to get it treated and pumped. Now we have the madness of taking water from the Shannon through Tipperary and many other counties to Dublin, which will destroy the environment. There is 50% leakage in Dublin. Kindergarten children would not put up with this.

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