Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

That is a new one for me but I will take that away because we need new, novel and important ideas.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. My comments relating to Donaghmede stand in the sense that it is a deeply tragic, upsetting and a very serious incident. It merits full investigation in the first instance by the gardaí and that is under way and more broadly regarding safeguarding protocols. I join with the Deputy and everyone in thinking of the staff and the very difficult situation they endured and those words do not capture it, and also the gardaí who arrived on the scene. Without cutting across their investigation, I can only imagine they arrived at a very difficult scene but played a very important role in restoring a degree of safety to that situation.

The issue of water quality is really important, and I thank the Deputy for his work on that. That is why when we entered Government we decided to establish a Cabinet committee on water quality because there is this need to take a whole-of-government look and to bring relevant Departments together under a committee chaired by the Taoiseach and to be able to bring agencies in. Our water quality is a really important issue for a whole variety of reasons, particularly from a public health and well-being point of view. The water quality in Ireland report was published in the past couple of days by the EPA. That summarises water quality from 2019 to 2024. I am pleased to point to some areas where there were bad results previously but where there are now positive results. We also have to be honest that the overall findings are concerning because they are now saying 52% of surface waters in Ireland are currently meeting their water framework directive target, which is down from the previous period where it was 54%. That gives us some indication of the scale of the challenge as well and that is another reason we have invested very significantly in Uisce Éireann.

Uisce Éireann ran a very effective public relations campaign telling everybody it needed more money and got it. It got a lot more money in the national development plan and now we need it, and I say this respectfully, to get on with it and to drive forward those projects. The Deputy may have gone into the individual judicial review but I will not. My comments on judicial reviews were broader. Of course, people have a right to access courts and, more broadly, the right of an individual or group to access courts alongside the common good and public good is always a balance for debate and discussion in society.

I agree with the Deputy on the private wires Bill. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is eager to progress this as a matter of urgency. It is not all of the solution, as the Deputy rightly suggested, but it does provide some degree of assistance.

Government stands ready to invest a hell of a lot more in our water quality through Uisce Éireann. We take very seriously the incredible importance of Dublin Bay as a huge natural resource. We want to see improvements there. I will not say anything which cuts across matters before the courts. We will, at a co-ordinated Government level, pursue all these issues through the Cabinet committee on water quality.

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