Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am disappointed that the Minister, Deputy James Browne, is not here today. This is a serious issue. If I had known in advance, I might have postponed the question until next week when he would be here to answer it. It is about a serious public health matter in Cork and the senior Minister should be here to provide answers or I should have been notified he would not be here.

For two years, the communities in my constituency have been plagued with dirty, filthy water. Sludge, muck, dirt, rust and high and unsafe levels of manganese in the water have been coming through people's taps. This is because, two years ago, Uisce Éireann spent €40 million on a new water treatment plant - €40 million. The water is worse now than it was before that. That has led to Uisce Éireann bringing in a private contractor. It did not use the local council staff who are contracted. The whole issue of privatisation means that it brought in a private contractor that put caustic soda into the pipes which stripped the lining of 300 km of cast iron pipe, releasing rust, dirt and filth that was there for years and that is what is running into people's drinking water.

I have raised this with Uisce Éireann. This is a serious public health matter. I raised it with the HSE and the EPA. This week, I got test results which prove everything I have been saying for the past two years. Last week, RTÉ's "Prime Time" covered the issue and that programme also proved that the water in Cork is not fit for consumption. Zara King of Virgin Media covered it on that station's news broadcast. It has been covered in the national newspapers and local newspapers and on local radio stations. If this was happening in Dublin, an emergency would be called and a special team put in place, but because it is in Cork - the northside of Cork - we are putting up with it.

To give the Minister of State a feel for it, from 28 August to 25 November, in the Dillon's Cross area of Cork city, 11 tests were done of which four showed the water to be unsafe. In the Gardiner's Hill area, 19 tests were done, of which eight showed unsafe water. In the Thomas Davis Bridge area, eight of 21 tests showed the water to be unsafe. In Gurranabraher, three of 12 tests showed unsafe water and, on 14 October, manganese levels in Gurranabraher were 90 mg per litre. The HSE says it should not be above 50 mg. The World Health Organization, WHO, says that anything above 80 mg is a public health issue. No further test was done in Gurranabraher for three weeks, so, potentially, the people of Gurranabraher were drinking unsafe water for three weeks. There was no public health notification, no advertisement. No one was told about it.

We are now seeing potentially unsafe drinking water being given. I will tell the Minister of State what this means. Children who are given this water over a prolonged period have serious issues relating to neurological delays and reproductive maturity. It is not Sinn Féin who says this. This is what the WHO says. I firmly believe Uisce Éireann is trying to bury this. It does not want to admit that half of the second city in the State has unsafe drinking water because of the consequences of such a scandal and the costs that would be incurred in supplying drinking water to half of Cork city. The HSE and the EPA are doing a Pontius Pilate, washing their hands of it. I have serious concerns. I will write to them to get them in front of the housing committee to explain why they are not acting. The consequences of manganese poisoning are long term and permanent.

What we have here shown in red - I will send the Minister of State a copy of this - are the ones that are over 50 mg per litre. Some of them are 128, 186 or 131 mg per litre. This is dangerous drinking water that the people of the north side of Cork city are being forced to drink.

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