Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

I agree with Senator Boyle that this is a timely debate. As the House knows, Galway has become synonymous nationally with serious water difficulties which are ongoing. We are now on our fifth boil water notice. Clarinbridge, which is at my back door, has had a boil water notice for approximately four weeks and Roundstone in Connemara has one. Prior to that for six or seven months, as Members know, we had a boil water notice in Galway city and the Oranmore electoral area affecting 90,000 people and causing considerable hardship. More than 200 people became quite ill and some vulnerable groups such as babies and older people could have died of cryptosporidium.

Senator Boyle spoke about the need to consider new developments and provide adequate water and sewerage schemes, which builds on the point made by Senator O'Reilly about the need for the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to revisit the capping of grant aid at €10,000 per house for water and sewerage services if we are serious about clean drinking water.

No more than the rest of the nation, we in Galway have come to take water quality quite seriously as a critical public health issue. County Galway has 600 group water schemes. My research into the rural water programme in Galway has revealed the following. The rural water programme that comes from private sources is going well. This is the expressed view of Galway County Council which finds it easier to work with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to get funding, initiate works and reach a satisfactory conclusion where private sources are involved, largely because there are fewer steps in the process to get work done. This is important feedback given where the difficulties lie.

Of the 600 group water schemes, however, more than 160 are dependent on public water supplies. Herein lies the difficulty. The public water supplies are experiencing serious difficulties with water pollution and contamination leading to people becoming ill as a result. To address this issue we need urgent funding for the upgrade of capital works for the public supply of water and sewerage schemes. In yesterday's budget for the nation the Minister allocated €471 million. For Galway alone we need more than one tenth of that for this year. I met the director of services this week to discuss this point. He said he needed €5 million immediately for 20 vulnerable group schemes. By that I know he is suggesting we are in serious danger of people in those areas becoming seriously ill again.

I wish to return to the issue of private sources and what is needed in that regard to improve water quality. Regarding private wells, we need to introduce chemical treatment, filtration or disinfection using either ultraviolet light or chlorination to eliminate all the bugs in the water, including e.coli, coliform and cryptosporidium. This is an important public health requirement which means drinking water will be 100% safe. Regarding the public water supplies where we have major difficulties in Galway, and no doubt this is also relevant nationally, all of my research has shown that the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government can be as successful with the public water supplies as it has been with the group water schemes if it follows a similar approach. The overall investment needed in County Galway from now until 2012 is €494 million, which is more than has been allocated to the whole country for this year, although it is a five-year programme in the case of County Galway.

The director of services informed me he needs €5 million urgently for work on 20 vulnerable schemes, including Clarinbridge, Williamstown, Monivea and Carraroe, to solve immediate public health issues with existing supplies. Reading between the lines, he is suggesting more areas are at risk of illness as a result of water pollution and contamination. I have put this on the record of the House and I ask that it be addressed for the sake of public health in Galway. I am very pleased the Minister of State and his officials are present to listen to this.

The process of having schemes approved and funded needs to be made easier because the existing process is too long and cumbersome. Does the Minister of State realise there are 70 steps between the initiation of a scheme for capital works and the work starting locally? This is ridiculous. The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has too many convoluted requirements. Too many written submissions and approvals are needed. Too many reports must to be sent between the local authority and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

The Minister of State should ask the people in Kinvara, Clarinbridge or Athenry. Athenry's temporary sewerage scheme is so inadequate that last year it was necessary to release the sewage into the Clarin river resulting in a major fish kill. That has now come down the river resulting in a boil water notice in Clarinbridge. The water is unsafe.

Insufficient local discretion is given to local authorities to allow them to proceed. The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government should trust the local authorities to know what is needed and provide them with a block grant. A pilot could be carried out in Galway to see how we do. It is very easy to evaluate its effectiveness.

Arising from the EU water directive, businesses and farmers pay through the use of metres. The difficulty, however, is who funds the domestic element. County Galway would be €1 million short and needs the extra money from the local government fund. Unless the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is forthcoming with adequate funding, money will need to be raised locally for schemes. This will be met with contempt as rates are always resisted and it is not a reliable way to raise adequate money for something as critical as water.

We need to simplify the process of approving schemes for capital works by having fewer steps. Adequate funding needs to be allocated so that local authorities are not left short. More discretion should be given to local authorities which know where the weaknesses are. The Department should provide an annual block grant to all local authorities to match their population size and needs. Galway should be used as a pilot for the nation. The Department should provide us with €30 million, which is just half of what we need in 2008, and then evaluate how we do. I will lay a wager with the Minister of State that he will find great success if the Department trusts local authorities with this approach.

As it stands, the Department's commitment to water supply and quality needs to be seriously questioned given the unprecedented wealth of recent years. It is time for a proper, targeted investment programme for public water in Galway. This is the Minister of State's chance and I would like him to convey it to the real Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to give real leadership on water and its importance for public health.