Ciarán Cannon (Fine Gael)

We had a very interesting debate yesterday on the fall-out from the recent extreme weather conditions which at its latter end developed into a debate about how we provide water in this country. This issue needs a debate on its own because it will not go away. Our national water supply system is creaking at the seams and this became obvious to us only when it met its first challenge in many years.

One might have some hope we could address this problem in a coherent manner if the Government were addressing it in a coherent way. Some of my colleagues suggested that rather than having 36 local authorities supplying water we need a degree of interconnectivity and a single authority that oversees the provision of water. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, seemed somewhat bemused at the proposal and said he could see no reason for the introduction of any new body. He was supported by Senator Ellis who described the suggestion as laughable and said the proposal was not a runner. We moved then to a point of considering the policy espoused by the Government's green energy enterprise programme, which was entirely contrary to this. It proposed setting up a single national water authority with overall responsibility for system planning, delivery and maintenance. That is what needs to be done. To clarify the Government's position we need a debate on the provision of a steady reliable water supply for all our people. I ask the Leader for such a debate in the near future so that the confusion may be cleared up.