Ciarán Cannon (Fine Gael)

I join previous speakers in offering congratulations to Senator Mooney. I wish the Senator well in the future. I also join Senators McFadden and Healy Eames in wishing the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, a speedy recovery from his challenging illness. My mother has just finished treatment for cancer and, thankfully, has fully recovered. I am aware of the difficult treatment regime to which the Minister will be subjected and I wish him the very best as he faces into it. To date, the Minister has dealt with his illness with courage and dignity.

Will the Leader arrange time for an urgent debate on the state of the public water supply system? That system is creaking at the seams and on the first occasion on which it faced a challenge it was unable to cope. In 2007 Forfás compiled an extremely informative report on our national water supply system and concluded that we spend over €500 million per annum to produce drinking water. Some 48% of that water is lost or simply disappears during the journey from treatment plants to people's taps. When it reaches people's homes, only 15% of it is used for drinking. The remainder is flushed down toilets or used to wash cars, water gardens etc.

There is a need for an urgent and radical reappraisal of how we produce and use drinking water. As part of its NewEra document, Fine Gael proposed the establishment of a semi-State national water supply company. I wholeheartedly support this concept. It is farcical that there is no interconnection among the 34 local authorities when it comes to water supplies. One could imagine what would happen if the ESB had 34 electricity generating stations located in the various counties and if the supplies provided by these terminated at county borders. It would be as ridiculous as that which obtains in respect of water supplies.

On Monday morning last, the River Avoca in County Wicklow burst its banks but there were people in south Dublin who had no water. In south Galway, thousands of acres of land remain flooded while some 50% of the towns in the county, including that in which I live, have not had water since Christmas day. It is farcical that we are doing nothing to collect a resource which falls from the sky, free of charge.

Sustainable Energy Ireland, which administers the greener homes scheme, has sensibly put in place a grant-aid system in respect of solar panels, pellet-fuelled stoves etc. This represents a wise employment of Government funds to encourage a more sustainable use of a natural resource. It is time we considered water harvesting as a mechanism to ensure we have a constant and reliable water supply. Provision in this regard should be made within the grant-aid system to which I refer.