Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I did not get a copy of the Minister of State's speech but he said that the water services policy from 2018 to 2025 is based on the delivery and development of water services in line with the needs and expectations of citizens and users, in compliance with legal obligations, in a fair and cost-effective manner and in keeping with the principles of social, economic and environmental sustainability. I have been reading this again and again and trying to decipher it into simple, understandable terms. Does it or does it not mean that every house in the country should have access to drinking water, clean, treated and tested? If it does not, the policy is flawed.

It is amazing we can put fibre in and we cannot put water in. I hear this argument about the economics of doing this. We have a working model that proves the economics are not anything like they are made out to be. I invite the Minister of State to come down to that area between Clonbur and the far end of the Maam valley, including places such as Glentraigue, a dead-end valley, Crumlin valley, Dooros and all these peninsulas and valleys that we have in that area. It is as scattered a rural community as he will find. Under the Clár programme, the grant at the time was €5,000 and we charged the householders approximately €500 so that was €5,500. With a very modest top-up, we were able to bring water to virtually every house. We missed two houses, one because they would not take it and the other one was a bit over the mountain for the way we were costing the schemes. The whole area was done. It is as scattered as is possible to find in the country. It is a once-off cost and running and maintaining good, well-laid water schemes is very cheap after that. We know in our area. Those group schemes that were put in were all connected to the public main and we now have one of the best quality water systems in the country with little maintenance because it was all built to standard and new. I and the Department responsible for rural development can absolutely demolish the theory that it is not affordable. I have argued this point with the Minister of State's colleague with responsibility for rural development. The Clár programme had a very efficient scheme for doing exactly what I want done in conjunction with the Department responsible for water. It was delivering water in all of these areas until the Government of 2011 abolished it. A good section had been done. The economic argument is blown absolutely out of the water. We have the rural regeneration and development fund and all sorts of fancy things are being done under that but none of them are as fundamental as the right to water. The right to water is coming on the agenda. When that happens, the 10%, which is 200,000 houses, give or take, who will be marching and demanding that they have a right to clean, tested, treated water as much as anybody else.

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