Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this important debate on water policy. Developing a water policy with so many complex issues and competing demands is not an easy task. Over the past decade we started to make some inroads. The two main issues are to provide safe, clean water to all of us and to treat all our wastewater so that when it is returned to the environment it does not cause damage to our health, to the rivers and seas or to other fresh water supplies. A multitude of other issues are involved in developing a water policy. I will try to address a few of them in the short time available to me.

The first priority of a water policy is to ensure provision of clean, safe water. We encountered a number of issues in recent years the most crucial being the contamination of existing supplies by a number of different factors and consumers not being alerted to this contamination immediately. We must ensure that adequate warning systems are in place and that consumers are alerted to any possible contamination immediately. I am aware that work is ongoing on replacing and rehabilitating old asbestos and cast iron water mains throughout the network and replacing lead pipes to individual houses. It might be advisable to report on a yearly basis the ongoing progress being made on these schemes.

I congratulate Irish Water on the completion in recent months of a new reservoir at Rockmount and complete replacement of the water mains from Mullagh to Milltown Malbay. This will provide a safe, secure and reliable source of water to this part of west Clare, which has had many breaks in service over the years. While this is a public water scheme managed by Irish Water, more than a third of households in County Clare source their water from group water schemes or private sources. The vast majority of these schemes need to be upgraded to modern standards. This work is supposedly to be funded by a multi-annual rural water programme. I understand that Irish Water has not accepted any calls for funding from local authorities and, therefore, much-needed upgrading works and improvements cannot progress to the detriment of people living in rural Ireland who are dependent on their local group schemes. It is imperative that when such upgrade work is complete on a group scheme, if it is the wish of the scheme members the scheme should be taken in charge by Irish Water immediately.

The second priority must be to provide safe treatment of our wastewater. County Clare is not unusual in that nearly half of the households in the county are not connected to the public water scheme. More than 17,000 are connected to their own septic tanks. First, we must take care of our public water treatment plants and invest in new plants where we are discharging untreated wastewater into our waterways and the sea. There are 35 wastewater treatment facilities in County Clare, 22 of which have available capacity. Work is progressing at present in five towns and villages throughout County Clare - Clarecastle, Liscannor, Kilkee, Kilrush and Ballyvaughan. These wastewater schemes will stop the discharge of untreated sewage coming from these villages and towns but this is only tackling a small fraction of the problem. I understand that there are nearly 50 of these small villages and settlements without sewer capability. The EPA has for a number of years been listing these and County Clare has just under 10% of those listed for the entire country.

I welcome the establishment of the new wastewater pilot scheme announced by the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, during the year. Clare County Council has submitted two applications in respect of Broadford and Corraclare. I look forward to the Minister approving those funding applications.

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