Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to get the opportunity to speak on this debate today. I sit on the Business Committee, and I have been seeking this debate for five weeks. It has taken a hell of a long time to get here. I mean absolutely no disrespect to the Minister of State, but the senior Minister should be here. The huge issue of wastewater and Uisce Éireann - whatever aspect of it we want to talk about - is a national issue and a national crisis. I could be here for two days talking about the issues in my constituency, but I want to look at a way forward too. I asked last week that we would have a question-and-answer session, which was not allowed; that is fair enough. I did say, in fairness, that if it was allowed, we would forward the questions to the Minister of State so that he would have answers rather than just throwing questions out and walking away. The whole point I am trying to make is that we need to look at how we are going to get past the crisis we have at the moment.

I will pick a town like Dunmanway in west Cork. We have had several meetings with Uisce Éireann but we have gone no further than talking about workshops or sweet shops. I do not know what they are on about but, anyway, there is all this kind of nonsense. That is going nowhere as such. That has been pushed out now to 2030 or 2032 - we do not really know. The first thing Independent Ireland did in its policies was to state that Uisce Éireann would be compelled to give a start and finish date within five years, because the people of Dunmanway need to know whether their sons and daughters, and Cahalane Brothers builders, can build houses in Dunmanway going forward. Are they going to be blocked for ten more years? Are they going to be blocked for 30 years? No one seems to know, and that is the astonishing thing. It is fine for me to be in here bashing Uisce Éireann; I am not here bashing Uisce Éireann. I would love to come into this Chamber and tell the Minister of State that it has done well and got the treatment back. Raw sewage is pouring in through the tide there. Look at Shannon. That has been about 15 years, and no house is going to be built. This is what I am saying to the Minister of State.

Is there a possibility - it has happened before - that a developer who wants to build houses where houses are needed in places like Dunmanway will be brought on board with Uisce Éireann to co-fund the development of wastewater treatment plants? That is what we need to look at. There is an opportunity here. We are not moving if we are depending on Uisce Éireann to deliver, because it has said it does not have the moneys and if it does not, I cannot argue with that. On the other side is Shannonvale, where raw sewage has been pouring into the local play park for 27 years. Raw sewage is going into the tide in Rosscarbery. A gentleman told me at a meeting last year that his son jumped into the water, and he was sick for several days after because he drank raw sewage - that is basically what he ended up doing. It has been 20 years in Ballydehob and in Goleen, where I live, it has been 25 years. We are going absolutely nowhere. If farmer has a leakage on the farm, the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, and Cork County Council come down on him or her and closes the business. They will put that farmer out of business and fine him or her. When it comes to Uisce Éireann, however, there is no accountability. The EPA has gone blind; its officials have gone to sleep behind a desk somewhere. It is not really kicking in the enforcements and the laws that it has. What I am saying is that the political parties are misleading the people when they come in with these figures, whether it is Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Social Democrats or the Labour Party. They have misled the people continuously by giving figures that can never be delivered until we have a proper Uisce Éireann or Irish Water: a company that can tell us what is going to happen and when it is going to happen. That is not happening at this stage.

See this speech in context