Ciarán Cannon (Fine Gael)

I am glad of the opportunity to have this discussion in order to address how we supply water to our towns, cities and households. If the difficult weather conditions of the last few weeks taught us anything, it was that the national water supply system is creaking at the seams. When faced with its first real challenge in many years, it was simply unable to cope.

The report by Forfás a couple of years ago, which has been cited by a number of Senators, told a very difficult story. It found that 43% of the valuable water we produce is simply unaccounted for. It disappears through a substandard outdated piping system and it is often tapped into illegally. There are a number of ways in which this valuable commodity simply disappears off the face of the earth. That is unacceptable. In addition, the figure of 43% is an average, so the situation is a great deal worse in some local authorities while somewhat better in others. It must teach us, however, that to allow a fragmented approach to water provision is simply not the way forward.

In the last ten to 15 years we have seen how successful the NRA has been in rolling out a national roads network around the country. Just recently the M6, a fine piece of infrastructure which I travel on every week from Dublin to Galway, was finally completed. I believe it would not have been completed for many decades without that overarching element, involving a pretty visionary NRA co-ordinating the construction of the infrastructure across a plethora of local authorities. Rather than suggesting, as Senator Glynn did earlier, that the NRA had somehow usurped the expertise of the local authorities, it has in fact done quite the opposite. I know a number of civil engineers previously employed by Galway County Council who were seconded to the NRA for the period of the construction traversing County Galway. Their expertise was harnessed, and their experience in being able to operate in their own environment was found by the NRA to be very valuable. Rather than usurping or taking from the role of the local authorities, the NRA has worked hand in glove with them across the country in continuing to provide a very substantial and modern road network.

I ask why that approach cannot be applied to water, because it makes eminent sense to have some type of inter-connectivity across the 34 local authorities. Imagine for a moment that we did not have the ESB, for example, a semi-State body that supplies electricity to all of our homes and businesses. Imagine if there was an electricity generating station in each local authority and that the network in each case simply terminated at the county boundary. Someone living a mile over the county boundary would get electricity from a generating station within his or her county. That is what pertains as regards water provision. There is little or no interconnectivity between counties and that is what needs to happen. It will only happen when there is an overarching single entity with a national strategy in charge of the process.

I am very sad that the Minister, Deputy Gormley, has left the Chamber half way into the discussion, but he did not seem to believe this was a good idea. In fact he thought Fine Gael was proposing to establish yet another quango that somehow would not be able to do the job of supplying water. He was supported in that position by Senator Ó Brolcháin, then Senator Camillus Glynn rowed in to the effect that he would not support the setting up of a national water authority, since he had sufficient trust in the local authorities to do the job they were doing. I wonder whether anybody in Government anymore has the time or interest to examine what exactly its policy is in this area because Fine Gael's policy of setting up a national visionary water authority is also the policy of Government.

That policy came about through the provision of an excellent document last November by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Mary Coughlan, and the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Eamon Ryan. They asked a high-level investigative group to examine how the Government might harness the potential of the green enterprise sector and said it was central to the development of the smart economy and designated it as one of Ireland's target sectors for investment and job creation. I fully support that aspiration. The report's introduction concluded by saying: "Government will ensure this report is acted upon swiftly and decisively in order that Ireland can extend its international reputation as an exciting and dynamic location for innovation and job creation, to embrace the green enterprise sector".

Somewhat further on in the document one of the excellent ideas from the working group, supported by the two Ministers, is the following:

...the setting up of a single national water authority, with overall responsibility for system, planning, delivery and maintenance. This will support the development of deeper public and private sector capabilities in the water sector and the development of projects of greater scale.

The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government was charged with setting up this single water authority.