Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I know that. The only people paying for water today are farmers and businesspeople. That should not be lost on anyone here and nor should what it costs to produce water. Crocodile tears are being shed here for people and in respect of this legislation, which is going through with the support of the new Government partners. We hear rumblings from the Taoiseach - soon to be Tánaiste - that we are set to have a game of musical chairs next Saturday. They will all do business together. The plant should not be given too much water, however, because the clay might be rubbed away from the roots. Perhaps those opposite do not understand horticulture that much. Maybe they do. I am not being disparaging or saying that they do not know. A little water, like in your whiskey - uisce beatha - or anything else is important, but too much makes it very weak and feeble.

This legislation is bonkers. Deputy Ó Broin mentioned the EPA in the context of controlling matters. The EPA does not have enough staff. The EPA stands on the bridge in An Caisleán Nua. That bridge was mined and was supposed to be blown up in the past - thankfully, that did not happen - in order to keep you-know-who out of our rebel country in south Tipperary around the Knockmealdown Mountains. The mines were not ignited, thank God, and no one was hurt. Now the EPA is standing on the bridge, parking beside it and going down the steps and taking samples out of the river. The staff will not go down the 300 m below the outfall pipe from a belching, filthy, dirty, sewer that serves the whole population of the village and that has not been upgraded in 40 or 50 years, and that will not be upgraded. They will not go there and take proper samples. If a farmer has an accidental spill in his silage yard, if he has an accident with a barrel or if a bit of dung falls off the top of his Wellington boot when somebody from the Green Party or An Taisce, God forbid, is passing by, all hell will break loose. The Army will nearly be called in to put a cordon around the place and bring the farmer out in handcuffs.

This legislation is ridiculously mad and anti-rural. We then have the crocodile tears from Deputy Ó Broin. The Deputy is half a Tipperary man, and he should know. Beidh fíorfháilte roimhe go dtí an Caisleán Nua agus an Tiobraid Árann. I will bring him to Bansha, Aherlow and many other places where there are no sewerage systems and where raw, untreated sewage is being belched into the rivers. Spare me all of this legislation that victimises farmers and businesspeople. Those people pay for water and everything else all of the time, but they are getting very tired of doing so.

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