Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)

I want to express my deepest sympathy at the tragic loss of life in Donaghmede in my constituency. I express my hope that all those injured have a quick and speedy recovery. I am aware the gardaí and emergency services responded swiftly and it is an ongoing investigation.

I raise something I have spoken about since entering this House, which is water quality in Dublin Bay. I have heard multiple TDs across this House mention it and many of my constituents in Clontarf, Raheny, Sutton and Howth have emailed me about getting sick due to swimming in Dublin Bay. This is not acceptable. Dublin Bay is supposed to be a UNESCO biosphere and an EU-protected bathing water. It is a complex issue. I have met with Uisce Éireann, which did have a huge body of work but what it is doing at present is not acceptable.

The HA 08 is the catchment of all of Dublin Bay - the Tolka, the Santry, the Liffey and every tributary. We need to look at the whole system or we will never fix the bay. Right now, and the Tánaiste has spoken about judicial reviews, there is a judicial review going on the wastewater treatment plant. Judicial reviews are there for a reason, that is, when the State is not doing the correct thing. It did not check every single one of the 380 inflows into Dublin Bay. The biggest problem with this drainage strategy is it is not taking into account these run-offs and the two types of capacity with this wastewater treatment plant are not being taken into account. There is the treatment capacity of the plant, which is at 2.4 million, but there is also hydraulic capacity. We have seen in Dublin's Ringsend wastewater treatment plant what happens when it rains. The plant's hydraulic capacity gets overwhelmed and there is a run-off into the bay. We have all seen that famous drone photo of a huge run-off that was not able to be stopped and reached up to 3,000 parts per million E.coli in the water, which is seven times the recommended safe amount. When rainwater flows into the combined sewers, it overwhelms that capacity and, as I said, already, this is not being taken into account. That is why there is a judicial review and why it needs to be taken into account.

The other issue that is very important for the public to know is that the greater Dublin drainage plan has a 150,000 population equivalent and nearly a third of the load is for Intel. That is for industry, not for housing. Intel treats its own water abroad in the US. Why can it not do it here? When we bring in the private wires Bill, it will help industry to create green energy onsite and have their own wastewater treatment plants. I urge that to be brought through as quickly as possible.

The other opportunity is oyster farms. I was elected with my literature mentioning oyster farms. The UK, US, China and Australia are all using oyster farms as a nature-based solution. It is there, it is proven and it is better than any man-made solution. After the oyster farms are complete, they can be ground up and used as fertiliser.

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