Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----for the greater Dublin area. In fact, we depend on Blessington and other places for huge amounts of water. The point he makes is absolutely right, however, in that there is going to be an increasing demand on that water supply. We need to be putting in place measures now to ensure the water will be there. There are so many ways in which we can do that. Obviously we can find alternative water sources. Deputy Ó Muirí mentioned the plan to move water from the River Shannon, where it is in abundance, to serve the greater Dublin area. I agree with that plan. Some people find it controversial but in the medium term we need to be actioning that plan.

We also need to put measures in place to ensure we use as little water as possible. We know there is leakage in Dublin, although it is lower than elsewhere in the country. Nationally, Uisce Éireann has made progress in reducing leakage by 9% since 2018. We still, however, have a leakage rate of 37% nationally and 33% in Dublin. That is an enormous amount of water that is being collected, treated and put into pipes but then not getting to the taps where it is needed. It is a huge problem but I recognise the very important work Uisce Éireann is doing to reduce that leakage figure.

Let us look at other innovations. One of the things I have been talking about for many years, including when I was a member of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, is about putting in place water systems in domestic settings to save water. This would involve putting in parallel grey water systems, sustainable urban drainage systems, water collection, water storage and things like that which reduce the amount of water we waste and reuse water in a way that makes the most out of the water that comes into the house. The idea is that certain systems within houses, such as kitchen sinks, showers and things like that produce water after the fact which cannot be drunk, but it can be treated very simply within the home and used for other functions, such as flushing toilets, for example. In that way, water used to flush the toilet would have been used once already within the house. That would hugely decrease the demand of that household for water but also the output from the house, which creates other knock-on problems.

In Dublin, for example, the Victorian infrastructure we have for dealing with our sewage is creaking. It is totally inadequate to deal with the population we now have in Dublin. In Dublin Bay, for example, one can see the knock-on effect on water quality. When there is what is called a substantial rainfall event - when it rains heavily - the run-off from the roads goes into the sewerage system and down to the pumping station at the back of the West Pier, where there is an attenuation tank which stores the water, and it is pumped through in an undersea bed pipe from the back of the West Pier to the Poolbeg sewage treatment plant. The pumping station can only pump a certain amount of water and the plant itself can only treat a certain amount of water. The idea that the plant is needed to treat run-off from roads and other drainage systems within the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown area is a nonsense. It does not need to be. That water should be diverted away from the sewerage system and the pipe should only be pumping sewage that is not diluted by rainwater for treatment in Poolbeg. That would immediately reduce the capacity issues in Poolbeg. That is not to mention other projects like Clonshaugh, which have not yet come on stream but are massively needed to deal with water treatment within Dublin.

The bigger problem it creates is that when those heavy rainfall events occur, the attenuation tank at the back of the West Pier in Dún Laoghaire fills up very quickly because all the rainwater goes into it. When the tank is full and the pipe that goes in to Poolbeg is working at full capacity, there is nowhere else for that overflow to go. It is mixed in with sewage that comes out of toilets throughout the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council area and it has nowhere else to go but into the sea and, at what is known as "the gut" at Seapoint, there is literally untreated raw sewage which occasionally flows into the sea at that point. What do we think that does to the water quality in Dublin Bay, where we fish and swim and which we use for leisure purposes? Of course it diminishes it. That is why local authorities have had to regularly issue bathing water advisory notices in recent years, telling people they cannot swim in Dublin Bay because it is so dirty and dangerous. That is a function of Irish Water as well.

If we are serious about tackling this problem, yes, we need to address supply issues and leakage issues, but we also need to deal with sewage and the inadequate sewerage system. We need to replace it with a modern system that separates water and recognises that water that goes into the drain is not the same as water that comes out of the toilet. Within a house one should have a blue water system, which is the potable treated water which comes in, and a grey water system, which is water recycled within the house. Using sustainable urban drainage, for example, water can be collected from drains in the garden or off the roof, while water used in showers or kitchen sinks can be recycled and used to flush the toilet. What cannot be treated within a household setting would then come out through a brown water system, go into a sewer and ultimately end up in Poolbeg, Shanganagh or wherever it is that it needs to be treated. Until we do that, we will have no realistic prospect of dealing with the demand on the water system. Water affects everything, from households to the fire service, industry and all of the other things we need water for. It is an incredibly important part of our infrastructure within the city and we need to prioritise it.

I want to acknowledge the fact that Uisce Éireann is making progress in that regard. I also acknowledge that in my dealings with the company through the Oireachtas liaison it has, I have found its staff to be an incredibly positive and active group of people. At the same time, I recognise that Uisce Éireann cuts off water from time to time for valve replacement or natural leakage reduction and does not really tell people in the area.

5 o’clock

I know there is a text alert service but many people do not know about it. I find that when I notify people in the local area, it is the first they have heard of it. There is a communications part to be done. Let us all get together and make sure we give Uisce Éireann the tools it needs to deliver for everybody in the country, particularly where the demand is acute in Dublin.

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