Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This Bill is being rushed through. I have no doubt but that it will go through the House and proceed to Committee Stage, where there will be amendments. Deputy Nolan said and I repeat that Independent Senator Boyhan put down nine amendments, all of which were ruled out of order. The Government is not listening to the people on the ground who know what they are talking about. It is estimated that approximately a massive 45% of treated water is lost nationally due to leakages. Can the Minister of State imagine that? I wonder how many of the leakages are in Dublin. If they fixed the water leaks there, they would not have to look for water to be piped from the Shannon to Dublin at a cost to taxpayers.

When the Bill was introduced today, reference was made to scientific evidence. Recently in Limerick, people in the Adare-Rathkeale district were put under a flood plain. These levels are taken from Malin Head. That is where they work their bases off for their scientific evidence. They put businesses and households under a flood plain. The people and businesses had to get an independent investigation and evaluation done to find out the OPW and EPA mapping was inadequate. It has not been updated in years, yet the Government is bringing a Bill into this House to get it passed when it has no current data on scientific evidence. It cost the householder in Limerick €1,100 plus VAT to get his review, which he has to give to the local authority to bring his house out of a flood plan it is not in. That is because information is inadequate.

This Bill should be looked at more and more done on it before it is brought through the House. The Government is imposing hardship on people around the country, putting them into flood plains with inadequate information and making them pay to get back out of them because of the lack of information the Government has. This is hitting farmers, householders and SMEs, who are paying again for the inadequate scientific information the Government holds. Why is the Government trying to rush this Bill through with the wrong information? If someone goes for planning permission for a house, they ask the applicant to check if their house is on a flood plain. They tell you it is and you check it and find it is not.

Committee Stage is the only chance. We will be voted down if it goes to a vote. The only chance we have is getting it to Committee Stage, where we can table amendments and bring it back before the House for debate.

We are talking about the local authorities and Irish Water and it has been proven by the OPW's own surveys that the biggest polluter in the country is the local authorities, which have been crying out for funding for years to upgrade sewerage and water systems and have received promises from governments going back 32 years in Askeaton. They are still waiting for funding but the Government is allowing raw sewage to go into rivers. Then it wants to bring in an extraction Bill to bring out of the sea by extraction what it has put into it in the first place, namely, raw sewage. Then it wants to treat it.

I was with somebody yesterday who came up from my parish in Granagh. It was a young girl of 14 years and her mother. We sat down outside and had a cup of tea. They observed to me that common sense is not that common within the Government. That came from a family living outside of Dublin. Like myself, they live in the rural area of Granagh. We want common sense when it comes to this Bill. This Bill needs amendments. It needs to be debated properly and not rushed through the Dáil. Listen to the people on the ground, the farmers and the SMEs. Government Members have based the Bill on scientific information that is out of date. We have been told by the OPW that it could take up to three or four years to upgrade the CFRAM maps that are out of date. Yet Government Members are making rules and regulations which are imposed on people who have to go away and pay money to show that the information is wrong.

The EPA has confirmed that 211,000 boil water notices were issued in Ireland in 2021 on tap water that was not safe to drink. However, on 7 October 2022, the EPA released a report showing the quality of drinking water in public supply remains high, with over 99.7% compliance with bacterial and chemical limits. Is that scientific evidence as well?

I implore that the amendments that are tabled on Committee Stage by the people who understand it are listened to. If Government Members want to bring a Bill through the House with scientific information, will they try to make sure that information is current and not outdated by three or four years? They say climate changes on a weekly basis yet they are making rules based on something three or four years out of date. They should have done surveys first and brought their scientific information up to date. They are out of date, out of touch with reality when it comes to people tabling amendments to the Bill and out of touch with the farming and SME sectors. I implore the Minister of State to accept amendments to the Bill so we can try to get the Bill right and not impose hardship of farmers, SMEs householders and people of this country who have to live and who understand the network that is there.

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