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

Sorry, I should have said "fishers". It is a place where fishers make a living in what is left of the decimated fishing industry. Critically, it is a precious public amenity where huge numbers of people swim. We have a major capacity problem with the Ringsend waste water treatment plant, which will not be dealt with until 2025. In the meantime, there are discharges of untreated sewage going on all over the bay, both from the plant and from storm overflows because of the lack of investment by Irish Water in rehabilitating our water infrastructure. There is a simple measure that could be taken to address this and I ask the Taoiseach to look into it. I put the same request to the Tánaiste last week. There is an ultraviolet treatment facility at Ringsend that is only being used three months per year, for the swimming season. Will the Taoiseach ask the Minister to instruct Irish Water to use that facility all-year round? It reduces the microbiological bacterial load of untreated effluent going into the sea and it would make a difference immediately if it were used.

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