Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his remarks. It has to be said at the outset that clean water in our rivers, lakes and estuaries is essential for public health, successful industry, agriculture and, crucially, the restoration of our natural environment and the ending of significant biodiversity loss in recent years and its recovery. I commend the EPA on its latest water quality report. Once again, it has produced very objective, independent and enormously important evidence which is informing this debate.

I have been a Deputy in this House since 2016. During those years the EPA has published its periodic water quality reports, wastewater reports, drinking water reports and, today, its latest report on septic tanks enforcement.

During all that time nothing has got better in the round. In fact, one of the headline comments in the conclusions of this month's EPA report tells us that for every area where progress has been made there have been negative outcomes elsewhere and that, therefore, in the round, we are in the same place as we were before. The difficulty with that is that we cannot be in the same place. If we are to give any meaning to my opening statement that clean water is essential for public health, industry, agriculture, and nature restoration and the tackling of biodiversity loss, water quality has to improve. I know the Minister of State passionately agrees with that. Unfortunately, the most recent water quality report is once again a very stark reminder from the Environmental Protection Agency that what has been done to date by the State and other actors I will come to in a moment is not addressing the core problem.

I will read into the record some of the key findings because they are enormously important. The first key finding states:

There has been no significant change in the biological quality of our rivers or lakes in 2022. The rate of decline largely matches the rate of improvements.

That is a damning indictment of decades of failure, particularly in respect of the outworking of the last two river basin management plans. The report goes on to state:

Nitrate concentrations are too high in 40% of river sites ... [Statewide] and in 20% of estuarine and coastal water bodies.

Those are very significant levels of nitrate concentrations. The EPA refers specifically to issues in the south and the south east. It states that they are "primarily attributable to intensive agricultural activities on freely draining soils in these areas" and makes reference to both organic and inorganic fertilisers. It goes on to state that average nitrate levels in rivers and groundwaters increased Statewide between 2021 and 2022 but, more generally, and significantly, since 2013, when this reporting series started. Phosphate concentrations, to which the Minister of State rightly referred in his remarks, are too high in 28% of rivers and 36% of lakes. The EPA talks about that coming primarily from wastewater discharges from a variety of sources, and the Minister of State's comments confirm that in respect of agriculture, forestry and, crucially, wastewater and urban wastewater, something that is very much in the gift of the Government as well as Irish Water.

The conclusions of the report are short and very significant. They say we will simply not meet our water quality objectives unless and until we reduce the emissions of nitrogen and phosphorous into our waters. They specifically mention Ireland's fifth nitrates action programme 2022-2025 for that to be fully implemented, and we are, as the Minister of State will know, fast running out of time. Also, Uisce Éireann has to prioritise and, in my view, accelerate its investment in addressing those outstanding urban wastewater discharges into rivers, lakes and coastal areas that are still the subject of enforcement proceedings from the European Commission.

I have no doubt whatsoever but that the Minister of State is absolutely committed to doing everything in his power, limited and all as it is as he is a Minister of State, although it is more significant than those of us in the Opposition, to have the issues in the EPA report addressed. I do not doubt that for a second. However, I also understand the mountain he has to climb to convince Government colleagues across a range of other Departments to travel that journey with him. However, unless there is a collective effort at the heart of Government to work in partnership with State agencies such as Uisce Éireann and Coillte, with private forestry interests and with agriculture and agrifood industry interest, and to reduce those phosphorous and nitrate emissions into our rivers, lakes and coastal areas, things will not get better. The worry that I have and that I think the Minister of State probably privately has is that in many areas things could get worse, with lots of consequences.

I absolutely echo one of the central points the Minister of State made, which is that addressing these issues is good for everybody. It is really important, and I think most of us who will contribute at this stage of the debate at least will take that same approach, which is that if we reduce the nitrate and phosphorous emissions, that is good for the general public. It is good for the health of people who use our water system for all its various uses. It is good for children. It is good for workers, good for green industries and good for nature and biodiversity. That message, that doing this and doing it right is in the State's interest and the public's interest, has to be emphasised over and over again. There will be some in this debate who, as we have said in other debates, will try to make this into one group of people against another: the Environmental Protection Agency against the farmers, or Green Ministers against the forestry industry. I want to put on the record that I fully support the Minister of State's comments that unless we start to tackle this issue along with the very important issue on which he will come back to us soon, that is, the marine protected areas, which is not dissimilar, and unless we win the argument that this is in the interests of all, we will be fighting an uphill battle.

The reason I say that is that on the Opposition benches we want to work with the Minister of State in this area of work. The Oireachtas housing committee in the previous Dáil and in this one has proved its worth. We have repeatedly brought in the Environmental Protection Agency alongside Government Departments and Irish Water when these reports have come out. We have used that as an opportunity first of all to allow the Environmental Protection Agency to give even more information to us and allow us then to interrogate what Irish Water will do to accelerate its improvements to those wastewater treatment plants and agglomerations that are in breach of the urban wastewater treatment directive. What will the Government and industry do to increase and accelerate meeting the objectives of the water framework directive? How can we ensure that that third river basin management plan is fit for purpose and does the types of things the Minister of State outlined, which I support, and which his two predecessors failed to do? Therefore, in a spirit of collaboration, I invite the Minister of State to work with our committee. Its Chair is here, as are other Members who share an interest in this. What we cannot allow, however, is for yet another Environmental Protection Agency water quality report to come and go, for the coverage they generate when they launch and for this debate to make headlines in the newspapers and then, in a year, two years or three years, when we are all back in this House and the next report is published, for us to have exactly the same conversation.

In the last minute I have I want to invite the Minister of State to give the House an update, if he is in a position to do so, in his concluding remarks and, if not, maybe by way of correspondence to our committee, on the ongoing enforcement action of the European Commission with respect to those wastewater treatment plants. This has been one of those issues which has dragged on for far too long. I do not think the State has any real authority to demand of other actors in society to do more if the State itself is not doing more. We still have far too many wastewater treatment plants spewing untreated raw sewage into rivers, lakes and coastal areas. I know some progress has been made and the Environmental Protection Agency when it reports on that is often keen to remind us that even where there is progress the number of wastewater treatment plants that fall into the at-risk category sometimes goes in the wrong direction. The Minister of State has the opportunity to maybe make some initial responses to the EPA report that was published this morning in respect of septic tanks because there is no doubt but that those people who are not connected to the public water system need more support and assistance. In some instances these are people who want to be connected to the public water system and find great difficulty doing so, and if the Minister of State has some initial observations on that, I would welcome them.

This is an important report. It needs to inform our work in committee and here in the Dáil and we want to work with the Minister of State to ensure its findings are properly acted on.

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