Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this item, which is of major importance to the people I represent in South Tipperary. I am pleased the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is taking this Adjournment matter. We have been seeking a hearing from the Department, so I am glad of this opportunity to raise the basic issue of a clean water supply for 80,000 people in households in South Tipperary. In a high tax paying economy such as ours, people have a right to clear water supplies.

Several proposals have been put to the Minister's Department concerning various projects around the county. I will start with the countywide conservation scheme of old pipes. People in my constituency have had to endure leaking pipes for a number of years. Invariably, year after year, the situation deteriorates. Week in and week out, my telephone and the telephones of other public representatives are ringing because the water supply has broken down. In places such as Mullinahone the supply has broken down several times a week, so people cannot access tap water. When they turn on their taps there is no water, which is a deplorable situation.

The old water pipes need to be replaced. An application has been made by the county council to the Department, but the council is still awaiting a response. I understand the cost of water projects for the whole county is in the region of €10 million, but water is flowing freely throughout the county underground from leaking pipes. That is not good enough when people cannot access clean water. The Minister should examine this problem as a matter of urgency.

I also wish to raise the large water schemes which are before the Department. At the local elections before last, Fianna Fáil candidates announced that Burncoat and Skehareenka would get a new water supply scheme, but that has still not been delivered. It has been amalgamated with another scheme that is now called the Fethard and Burncoat supply scheme, but those people are still waiting for that scheme to start. We are told by officials of South Tipperary County Council that they are still waiting for a response from the Department. How can people operate in such an environment, waiting for officials to tell them when the scheme can start? People in Burncoat, Skehareenka and Fethard have been waiting over nine years for such a scheme. I would like to have a response from the Minister on that issue.

The Galtee regional water scheme is under major pressure, given the amount of new houses in the various villages that have been built in west Tipperary. People relying on old schemes cannot get tap water due to new housing schemes that have been built in recent years. People in older houses cannot get water due to the pressure caused by new housing. Why is that happening in this day and age? It is deplorable and unacceptable. I am glad the Minister is here to listen to what I have to say, at first hand, about how the people of South Tipperary are being affected.

The Ardfinnan scheme is also awaiting sanction. The Minister has been quoted as saying he wants to cut through bureaucracy, but the red tape involved in the applications before his Department is deplorable. He should cut through that red tape so that next summer those involved will have a decent water supply.

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. A significant range of water services projects are being progressed in South Tipperary at present, with the support of unprecedented Exchequer funding from my Department. I am pleased that a record provision of €560 million, an increase of 19% over 2008, will be available for water services in 2009. This is the clearest possible statement by the Government of the priority being given to ensuring that water quality and water supplies are of the highest standard throughout the country.

In the case of South Tipperary County Council, my Department's water services investment programme 2007-09 allows for the investment of €95 million in water and sewerage schemes in the county over the next few years. In addition, I have allocated €1.038 million to the council in the current year under the rural water programme, mainly to improve group water scheme supplies.

Proposals for water supply infrastructure upgrades are being advanced by South Tipperary County Council for a number of locations around the county. These include the Fethard and Burncoat water supply scheme, the Clonmel town and rural water supply scheme, and the Ardfinnan, Galtee and the Dundrum regional water supply schemes. Funding for these projects has been allocated under the investment programme and my Department is committed to responding to the council's proposals as quickly as possible.

In its most recent drinking water report earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency identified seven public water supply schemes in South Tipperary that required detailed profiling from catchment to consumer, to determine whether the supplies needed to be replaced or upgraded, or where operational practices needed to be improved. I have already approved special funding for short-term upgrades the council has put forward for five of those particular schemes.

Alongside the extra funding and new infrastructure, I have put in place a new and more rigorous supervisory framework to ensure that good quality drinking water is available and that problems are dealt with quickly and effectively where they arise. Local authority drinking water supplies are now subject to direct supervision by the EPA. All breaches of standards must be reported to the EPA, which will also oversee the local authority's response. In addition to new enforcement powers, I have also given the agency the necessary financial and personnel resources to allow it to discharge its responsibilities vigorously.

I am committed to ensuring that good drinking water quality is at the top of each local authority's priority list. To back this up, I am providing local authorities with funding to upgrade their water supply infrastructure. I have also put in place a fully resourced supervisory framework to ensure that this infrastructure consistently yields the best possible results for the consumer.