Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Like other Members, I think the way that this is being rushed through the Dáil is crazy. There is nothing to say that in January we could not go through this thoroughly. The Minister of State seems to be putting stuff in. He comes from a farming background as well. Thresholds will be put in for farmers to get licences. It is like driving a car. The day you have to get a licence for something is the day that you could lose it and you become vulnerable to the State. While you have to get one to drive on the road, the bottom line is that we should encourage farmers. Instead of sending the water down through the rivers and the lakes, first, they should be able to harness water and, second, if there is a river running through their land, they should be encouraged and should get a grant to take the water before it is treated to give to cattle.

I am chairman of a group water scheme. For the life of me I can never understand why we send the water through the dearest process because we have to do it to EU regulations and have chlorination, UV treatment and the sand system. We have make sure that it is 100% right, and rightly so. I agree with all that. However, then we have to send it back up for cows and bulls in fields or sheds to drink. This is instead of encouraging farmers. If you bring a pump and you come out from a river and you put pea shingle down, you could have a lovely little system that would look after the farm. We should be grant aiding that instead of frightening the daylights of the farming community. In fairness, the farming organisations have been involved in this but it does not seem like anyone is listening. It just seems that it is being rammed through whatever happens and the consequences will come later.

The Bill is giving the right to Irish Water to rise the levels of anything they want. That means that if someone has land beside the water, for example, they could be flooded out of it. It is happening on the Longford-Roscommon-Leitrim border where farmers say the River the Shannon could be down but it is higher in the dam where they are taking the water out. That cannot continue and they cannot keep doing what they like. This giving Irish Water such powers that they will nearly own the water in every river and lake in the country. That is not tolerable.

The other issue that is not defined in this Bill is that the catchment area of group water schemes are not accounted at all for. Basically, Irish Water will rule it and they will have the rights to it everywhere, but what about the catchment area of the group water schemes? This is the time of year that a bit of common sense should kick in. The Minister of State should pull back and give space to this Bill so that we go through it meticulously. We are not in here tonight at 9 o’clock or later to just make our points on something. We are in here because there is a genuine concern among constituents and farming organisations. The Government is going around saying how they are listening to the farmers but they are listening much in this Bill. There needs to be a bit a of step back so that Bills are not driven through and guillotined so that the Government can add up the number of Bills. They say that they are great because they have gotten 39 Bills in the past while but the issue is the loopholes and the damage that this will do down the way.

We are very far fetched at the moment. We will dance according to anything that Europe sends over and we will jump as quickly as we can. We seem to love this Europe that seems like it will nearly dictate how we will sleep in our bedrooms. Whatever they bring in, we have to do it. It is about time that we start thinking of our own people in this country. Everyone wants good water and nobody disagrees with that, but nobody wants their land flooded because some genius somewhere decides that we have a huge storage. I say openly that I have no objections to bringing water from the River Shannon to Dublin, not a bit in the world, but I also say that they had better fix a lot of leaks in the city. All of this must be balanced. There are 66 plants that are on life support in Leinster and we have to make sure that we have water and I agree with all of that. I am not a naysayer about this, but I have problems with the big powers that were given to the likes of Irish Water over our rivers, streams and lakes around the country. I worry about that. This will cause problems down the way. People will be deciding to go in and check every bit of water. The River Island near my home has been deemed one of the cleanest rivers in Ireland and there are heaps of farmers along it. They respect it and they look after it but when they see the likes of this Bill coming and they have to get a licence for X, Y and Z, we are nearly starting to put them through every rigour of systems. If this is what the EU is about, I would question them because we should not take everything they throw over to us sitting down and say, “Well, sure we will do this because it is great”.

I do not know why this Bill has been given the time it is being given. It should go through Committee Stage in the normal way that it goes through, as it should through all the different Stages of debate because we are talking about the water of the country. We should give more time than this. Even some of the Government Deputies are not happy with the Bill, but the Chief Whip will whip them into line. I ask the Minister of State to rethink where we are going with this water abstraction debate.

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