Dan Boyle (Green Party)

This is a timely debate, especially considering the recent announcement by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government on the largest ever allocation of funding in terms of water services. That announcement has been added to as a result of yesterday's budget. It is important to note the focus the Minister for Finance gave to water services in his Budget Statement, which itself was an innovation. That indicates, from a Government perspective, that the matter of water quality is of the highest political importance.

The difficulty we have experienced with deteriorating water quality across the country, not just in rural communities but in major urban centres, has been much debated and still requires a large-scale co-ordinated response. There are continuing difficulties with cryptosporidium in the water supply of Galway city and surrounding areas. Ongoing problems still have not been solved in Ennis and many Members in the House would be familiar with difficulties regarding water supply and quality in many parts of the country. The reason behind this is that we have allowed water to be resourced that could be abused, not only as a receptacle for waste products but also in terms of compromising use as a source of drinking water supplies.

The most recent EPA quality of water report shows a third of the rivers in the country used for drinking water supplies are polluted. That serves as a wake-up call. It is one of the reasons the Minister responded immediately in terms of changing the regulations for the monitoring of the quality of water systems, giving the Environmental Protection Agency a prime role in the matter from hereon.

Such action cleared up much of the confusion existing in the past regarding who would take responsibility for particular waterways, which left cases being passed from pillar to post, particularly where the waterway was a boundary between two local authorities. There is now a sense of clarity in that area.

This debate is concerned especially with drinking water supplies. The provision of an infrastructure for water supplies and a waste water infrastructure is something that we have historically left for local communities, with a minimum amount of support from local authorities, to bring about themselves.

I once worked as a community development officer with Muintir na Tíre and I noticed the confluence of membership of people in community councils and local group water schemes, a scenario still prevalent throughout the country. It must be acknowledged that group water schemes brought about an infrastructure that the State, either at local government level or central Government level, lacked the full means to bring about. It was the marriage of local community voluntary effort and the willingness of such people to be involved at a management and supervision level that provided any drinking water service at all to most rural communities.

This was a feat in itself but keeping the schemes going has also been something of an achievement. Currently, the level of pollution and contamination from outside sources must bring us to question the economies of scale that exist with many individual group water schemes. Is the existing method for providing water in rural communities the best way of getting the job done?

There is no doubt the democratic infrastructure which exists in group water schemes should be maintained and local people should have the ultimate say in knowing from where their water is coming, how it is being distributed and whether it is of the best quality. There is a greater role for local authorities and Government, as well as State agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency.

Senator Kelly mentioned that many rural households derive their water supply from having access to individual wells. For many people this is deemed to be the cleanest source available, but even that idea has come under threat from pollution from outside sources, particularly with regard to ground water.

The legislation places all the onus regarding supply and quality of this type of water source on the people with individual wells but there is a need to reconsider legislation and oblige the testing of such water in households on a regular basis. This would ensure people living in or visiting such households would be exposed to the cleanest possible water supply at every opportunity.

For rural communities there is a special emphasis on having the cleanest water possible. This morning we debated farmers' market and locally-produced food, both of which depend on the food grown in rural communities having access to clean water supplies. It is important that we have these two debates today as they say much about the future of rural Ireland.

There is also a need for sustainable planning in rural Ireland. I will not go into the wider debate of what is good and what is not, but there are reasons for rural communities being diverse in terms of where households are located and where people wish to build houses in future. The consequence is that it is difficult to put in place a sustainable network of both water supply and waste water treatment. We must be conscious of this idea in entering the debate of how and where we build houses in rural Ireland. Not only is it difficult to provide the most efficient infrastructure but there is an added cost in doing so.

I hope organisations such as An Taisce and the Irish Rural Dwellers Association will take those points into account. We are concerned here with the essential elements of life. Water should be clean and plentiful as we are one of the more fertile countries in the world, but it is not. The reasons behind this come from how we structure our society, allowing elements of pollution to dominate.

We must welcome the initiatives put in place over the last months in response to the most recent EPA report and we should strive to not only meet the lowest common standards we are obliged to under European Union directives, but seek to achieve the highest possible standards. We can use that as a mark of quality with regard to the food we produce, the communities we create and in trying to ensure the problems existing now will not exist into the future because of a raising of the bar.

Despite the increase in funding announced in yesterday's budget and the recent funding programme by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, this area will need sustained and increased funding if public confidence and the necessary infrastructure is to be created.