Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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Ar an gcéad dul síos, ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil for allowing me to table this Topical Issue today. I declare an interest in that a company I am involved in does some work for Irish Water. No disrespect to the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, but I am disappointed that the Minister or the Minister of State with responsibility is not here. That is the real problem. There is absolutely zero accountability with Irish Water to us public representatives or, never mind us, to the public who depend on this water. Clonmel town - Deputy Murphy was here and he is as well aware as I am - is a chronic situation. I spoke to a company five minutes ago. They have been onto me every week. Sixty-five jobs are about to leave the town because the company cannot use the water. It has to bring in tankers to have clean water to use for its manufacturing product. The jobs are leaving and going to the northeast - just imagine. This is chronic. There are people in charge who do not have a clue and do not seem care.

I meet engineering staff who I talk to, and they understand the water. I meet executives, different executives and more executives. They are bamboozled talking about investments. There are investments going on - we accept that - but there is also damage being done to the water services that have supplied Clonmel for a century and a half. Clonmel, before Irish Water took over and until recently, was using 220 cu. m of water per hour. That was being supplied from Glenary and the reservoir south of the town up on the Comeraghs. That was being supplied by one 10 in. main in around Kilmacomma and one 7 in. main going to the reservoir. They took out the 7 in. main, with a big investment, put in a 9 in. main and increased the water into the reservoir, but they would not listen to anybody and increased the pipes going out. Then what did they do? They sabotaged the 10 in. main, which had been laid about 22 years ago. I remember it well. It could supply so much of the water into the town and now we are depending on the reservoir and the plant. It is under pressure. Every evening it is down, down, down low. It cannot maintain this. I argued this with Irish Water, as did others, prior to it doing this work. The contractors that did it knew it was madness. Imagine that they capped the main going into Kilmacomma, County Waterford. It is a 10 in. PVC main, but other mains have asbestos and suffer from other kinds of poor quality. This is a perfect main. It supplies two thirds of the town, including the hospital. For the first time ever, the hospital ran out of water two weeks ago and it had to get in tankers. This is sinful and shameful that Irish Water can do this kind of blackguarding with no recourse to anybody. It has men there who know the system, but it does not want to engage with them. It has transferred one of them to Carrick-On-Suir. He knows the water intimately, but this is the kind of blackguarding. It does not know and does not want to listen, but it is shocking that it can sabotage the main and people then have dirty water and boil water notices for months in the Ardfinnan regional water scheme.

They have been on it since early September. The agency now intends to move on to the Galtee's plant, which it is going to wreck as well. Somebody has to rein it in, make it accountable and not give it copious more billions to put in infrastructure. I welcome the millions that will be provided for infrastructure because we cannot wait for Irish Water. It is unfit for purpose. It is a monstrosity that was created here by the Fine Gael Government and the sooner it is disbanded and taken down, the better. The businesses that are paying a fortune to this company for water are entitled to a service. Households are entitled to have clean drinking water that is reliable and safe, as are the hospitals, doctors' surgeries and other such places.

I am in the centre of the town. In my office we have a lovely water supply from Poulavanogue. It has been there for 200 years. They are going to disconnect that even though the supply flows down into the town and never gives trouble. That is the case at the moment, and it was also the case in the summer and last year when there was trouble all over the town. We had a water supply in the centre of the town. However, they are going to disconnect that. They tell us they cannot upgrade it to meet the standards. It is sabotage and nothing else. If they are not stopped soon, they will drive away employment and jobs and drive people to insanity.

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister. The Deputy will appreciate that the supply of public water and the provision of water services in general are matters for Uisce Éireann in the first instance. Uisce Éireann has statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operation at national, regional and local level. The Minister has no function regarding the specific Uisce Éireann operations to which the Deputy refers. The Environmental Protection Agency, in turn, as environmental regulator, is responsible for setting quality standards and enforcing compliance with EU directives and national regulations for the provision of drinking water. As the public health authority, it is the HSE's decision regarding issuing a boil water notice.

To be helpful, the Minister has made inquiries of Uisce Éireann on both the Deputy's behalf and that of Deputy Michael Murphy, who raised the matter directly with him. Uisce Éireann acknowledges that aspects of the water treatment plants and network infrastructure in Clonmel are aged and fragile and the resulting impacts that water supply issues have on businesses and residents in the Clonmel area.

Uisce Éireann is committed to investing significantly in Clonmel to deliver a more robust, resilient water supply that will include upgraded treatment facilities, storage and an upgraded network. Uisce Éireann has confirmed that the delivery of a strategic multimillion euro investment to modernise and upgrade the water assets across the town is well under way. When complete, this will provide local homes and businesses with a safer, more reliable water supply into the future.

Clonmel and the surrounding areas are currently supplied with drinking water from three water treatment plants - Poulavanogue, Glenary and Monroe. The area has been subject to ongoing operational issues impacting homes and businesses, including intermittent boil water notices and unplanned interruptions to supply. While these works are ongoing, Uisce Éireann has been in contact with the customers in question to keep them informed of progress being made to lift the boil water notice. The Uisce Éireann water charges plan sets out a compensation mechanism when water quality is compromised and unfit for human consumption such as when boil water and drinking water restriction notices apply. Business customers who pay charges can follow up with Uisce Éireann as they may be entitled to a rebate. The Department's priority is to ensure that people's health is protected and that adequate water is available for all consumers. We all want to see this notice lifted without undue delay, but only when the HSE and the EPA have confirmed the water supply is safe.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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Normally, I welcome investment. They keep telling us there is a lot of investment. There is investment, but normally investment improves the situation. The investment here has done awful damage to the situation. We hear the buzzwords "resilient" and "continuous supply" but it is not resilient. We have had resilient supplies for generations at Poulavanogue - a gravity supply. Now, they must turn around and pump the water back up there. That does not make sense at all. I told the Minister of State we need 220 cu. m per hour and that has been restricted because we moved the 10 in. pipe. They put a 4 in. pipe into a housing estate in County Waterford, Kilmacomma, and they tapped it, which means that it cannot be used any more in an emergency. The hospital was never without water until two weeks ago. Imagine our hospital having to get in tankers. Business are crippled with enough charges and they need a supply of water. They are paying dearly for water in and water out.

This is the situation. There is no Minister. He has no responsibility. It is the EPA and the HSE. The HSE is another body that is unfit for purpose. The EPA has set the standards too high. The problem is mechanisation and computerisation of the plants. No physical persons are going out there when we have heavy downpours of rain and cleaning the screens, which they always did. I refer to Mr. Hartigan, the late P.J. Cullinan and Joe Carrigan, who is still with us. Many other people went out and cleaned the sieves and the water went. Now we are waiting for a computer to send a message to somebody who may or may not answer his phone. The workers are fatigued and disgusted. The Minister is trying to move them over to Irish Water. There are good workers and excellent county council staff over the country. We could not have better in south Tipperary than the team of people we have. They are being bullied to go into a company in which they no faith. They are ashamed to drive the vans with the names on the side of them. That is what they tell me. They have no intention of going to Irish Water. We will have a worse situation when their expertise, knowledge and capability to fix the mains and look after the network is gone. We are going from bad to worse unless someone takes a hold of this. We will lose jobs and business people. People's health is being damaged, including their mental health, because they have no water and then they have dirty water.

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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Both our water and wastewater systems require substantial and sustained investment over a number of investment cycles to bring the systems up to the quality and resilience standards required of a modern service to provide for population growth and to build resilience in the face of climate change. The preferred long-term approach for Clonmel, as set out in Uisce Éireann's national water resource plan, is the construction of a new water treatment plant with water sourced by abstraction from the reservoir. The overall plan sets out strategic options to ensure a more secure, reliable and sustainable water supply for almost 370,000 customers in the region over the next 25 years, supporting future growth in population and industrial development.

The updated national development plan has secured record levels of investment of €12.2 billion for the water sector, of which €11.7 billion will be invested by Uisce Éireann to support the delivery of key strategic projects in our cities and regions to deliver the additional water services capacity required for the new housing targets while prioritising public health and safeguarding the environment. This investment will deliver significant improvements in our public water and wastewater services, support improved water supplies right across Ireland, including rural Ireland, and support a range of programmes delivering improved water quality in our rivers, lakes and marine area, making a significant contribution to addressing Ireland's needs.

As per the very specific concerns in relation to Clonmel, as raised by Deputy McGrath and previously by Deputy Michael Murphy, the Minister remains available to be contacted directly to address this issue in tandem with Uisce Éireann, the EPA and the HSE. I thank the Deputy for his intervention this morning.