Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Leanfaidh mé ar aghaidh agus má thagann an Teachta Paul Donnelly, ligfidh mé isteach dó. It is good to see you back, a Cheann Comhairle back. Fáilte romhat ar ais. Tá sé go maith tú a fheiceáil i mbarr do shláinte agus do bheatha arís.

On Irish Water, I might surprise the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, by starting out with a positive of sorts. In fairness to Irish Water, there has been a long-standing problem in Cork Harbour with the discharge of foul waste, pollution and the impact on bathing waters, It has to be acknowledged that there has been very significant investment in that important project. Not every part of the schedule has run perfectly but, by and large, it is going well. It will play a vitally important role in the future for the environment, for the quality of people's drinking water, for the quality of water in the harbour and for the potential for future development. I want to acknowledge that before having some maybe adverse things to say about Irish Water. It certainly is not all bad.

It is my view that it is possible to have a national utility that is responsive and properly resourced. I was never of the view that water charges were necessary to ensure investment in water services. That can be seen in terms of the investment that has taken place in the North over the course of the past ten years where water charges were taken off the table. Similarly, at least where it comes to Cork city, investment is possible without that model. I suppose I would insist that it should remain the case that it is possible, provided the right political priorities are there, to ensure there is investment in our water services that comes through direct public taxation.

The other element of that, of course, is that we need to ensure this remains in public ownership. I was at a protest recently in Cork city centre organised by water services workers who work in Cork City Council and Cork County Council. One of their key demands was a date for the referendum on the public ownership of Irish Water. That is absolutely essential.

In terms of Irish Water, as I say, there is a lot of work going on. That sometimes causes expected outages, but in the course of things, naturally, through storms and whatever, there are unexpected outages too. I can understand when people are not notified of an outage that cannot be expected but I must say I have been disappointed and frustrated on a number of occasions about the notice that has been received by residents in my constituency due to scheduled outages. Unexpected weather, storms or whatever occur - these things happen, and that is fair enough. I understand that but where there is scheduled work, it is vitally important to provide advance notice. People in all sorts of public authorities point to the note in the newspaper as if people still leaf through the back pages of the local newspaper looking for these advertisements. That is not how people will hear about outages. They need to hear it through the radio. When there are small numbers of houses affected - perhaps a couple of hundred - there is no reason Irish Water could not distribute literature directly to those houses. It happens on occasion with bodies such as the Office of Public Works, OPW. Where there is something to do with flood relief, the OPW ensures that the contractor delivers a notice door to door. It should be the same with Irish Water. When one is talking about more than 1,000 houses affected, perhaps that is not so realistic.

Is it possible for a couple of hundred houses? I believe it is and it is reasonable. Many elderly and vulnerable people are hugely affected if their water supply is disrupted when they have had no notice of it. A notice may have been in a newspaper but that is not to say that the key people will see it. This brings me to another issue that has been flagged by several of my colleagues on Cork City Council. There has been some progress on it. This is the issue of notice for vulnerable people. This relates to people who are hard of hearing or hard of sight. It is about ensuring these people are contacted directly to make sure they are aware of it.

Irish Water is on the ground regularly and it is doing a lot of work. This affects the public realm fairly significantly. Sometimes it is restored properly and quickly in co-operation with the local authority or by its own labour. Unfortunately, it is not always the case. Sometimes a road is dug up and a resident or two or a whole street are affected. They can be a long time trying to chase Irish Water to remediate it. A woman in my constituency had been trying to get Irish Water to fix the area in front of her drive for 11 months. This is not good enough. She had no choice about the works. They were for the public good. That is all fine but her drive and any street that has been affected needs to be made good quickly and promptly. There must be courtesy and respect for residents.

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