Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

The River Poddle was the main source of Dublin's drinking water for more than 500 years but if one was to drink it now one would be in danger of going to hospital. It is polluted so often that it is a danger to wildlife and children in the parks that it runs through in Tallaght, Crumlin and Kimmage. For years local people, environmental activists and the Save the Poddle campaign have reported the pollution to South Dublin County Council and to the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, but to no avail. The most recent incident was last Friday when an oily substance that looked like bleach turned the river white in Tymon Park and in Bancroft Park. The council knows that the pollution is coming from nearby industrial estates like the Cookstown Industrial Estate but continues to allow business owners to pollute the river with total impunity. When will action be taken? When will business owners be prosecuted for polluting our waterways for the sake of profit? Is the Taoiseach happy for us to end up with more Lough Neaghs in this jurisdiction?

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