Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

First, I want to give full credit to the Regional Group and Ms Cáit Nic Amhlaoibh for developing and bringing this really important Private Members' motion to the Dáil.

Water is a building block of life and the provision of adequate water infrastructure is the building block of a functional society. Waste water treatment services are vital for nearly every part of Irish society. The political heat has obviously gone out of water since the days of the Fine Gael and Labour Party water tax but it is still incredibly relevant for many people's lives. I was chair of the Meath water rights campaign back in the day and I echo the call for funding for water infrastructure to come from central government and not from water taxes.

Ireland is in a housing crisis, and yet, significant housing developments in many parts of the country are being held up by the lack of water services. A significant portion of housebuilding is not happening right across towns and villages in Ireland due to the lack of water services. This is particularly acute in rural and regional Ireland. People also forget that investment in infrastructure is significantly dependent on a functional water infrastructure. Vast swathes of regional and rural Ireland simply do not have that infrastructure, and therefore, do not have the necessary investment in jobs and development. It is often an invisible reason for the lack of jobs going into regional and rural Ireland but it is a significant element of that.

Even the housing estates that are built are still waiting for connections to the water infrastructure. More than 500 estates are currently waiting for connections to public water mains. Ireland is developing into a city-state. We have had significantly lopsided development in Ireland for the last 20 or 30 years. Some 50% of the population, and more than 50% of the industrial output of this country, will actually come from the greater Dublin region soon. Much of Ireland is being turned into a commuter belt. Unless we get real with regard to the provision of water services around the country, this will continue to happen.

The existing water services are creaking at the seams. It is a shocking situation that 35 towns and villages have raw sewage flowing into rivers, lakes and coastal waters. Another 78 treatment plants are currently overloaded and regularly discharge into the system. Some 40% of the water in Dublin is leaking out of the pipes at the moment. The Government's unbelievably crazy solution to that is bringing water from the Shannon river basin right across the country into Dublin. Mark my words, it will be a children's hospital mark 2 with regard to runaway budgets into the future.

In my own county of Meath, unbelievably, a meat factory is currently seeking to discharge waste into the River Boyne. Even though the river is a source of water for approximately 25,000 homes in east Meath, this factory is seeking to discharge its waste into it. The river is also a wonderful centre of wildlife. I have been campaigning for approximately 13 years for it to be created into a heritage greenway. Can anybody imagine the damage that putting further pollution into the river would do? I thank Mr. Peter Whelan, the Slane Aontú representative, for his work against that particular proposal.

I recently tabled a parliamentary question to the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, and perhaps the Minister of State might help with this, on whether the effluent being discharged from Tara Mines into the River Boyne on a daily basis is within the public health limits. Tara Mines is a really important source of jobs for our county but we need to make sure its impact into the water system does not negatively affect people living around it.

My own town of Navan was for years known as "Alice Springs" because every year we could be guaranteed that water mains would burst, streets would be closed and houses would be flooded. Aontú's Trim representative, Mr. Jack Lynch, and I have been in contact with Irish Water on several occasions because the whole of south Meath is under major pressure with regard to water. Ballivor was without water for much of the winter and Trim was the same. Incredibly, when we contacted and met with Irish Water, it told us the reason there is so little water is that people are working from home and there is a 15% increase in demand for water in homes. This was at the same time that the River Boyne - the source of the water - was bursting its banks.

Investment in water infrastructure is often ignored, especially coming up to elections. Capital investment in infrastructure is massively important for the development of our country in the future, however. It should not take second place in the debates or in the Government's focus. I support wholeheartedly the Regional Group's call for this Government to get real with regard to investment in water.

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