Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. It is a fair point that she is making. State agencies should not be polluting waterways and our rivers. Certainly, Uisce Éireann should not be. There should be severe penalties. To be fair, on the other hand, Uisce Éireann develops a lot of wastewater treatment plants, which are very beneficial to water quality. It has to put up with a lot of objections and judicial reviews to stop wastewater treatment plants being developed and so on, so the other side of the coin has to be acknowledged. However, it should be very vigilant in terms of not creating situations like the one in Cavan that the Deputy has outlined. I do not have the full details of that. The Blackwater fish kill was appalling. The EPA has not been in a position to identify who was responsible, but it was catastrophic in its impact on water quality, fish life and so forth. It is a matter we will keep under review.

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