Denis Landy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wish to offer my concern and support to the workers in Bausch & Lomb in Waterford city who are facing a difficult time at the moment in the absence of Senator Cullinane, who raised the issue earlier. In his absence last Thursday, the Leader of the House and myself raised the issue with the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton. We had a detailed discussion with the Minister and impressed on him in no uncertain terms - it was not that he did not already know - the seriousness of the problem. We have already raised this with the Minister and we have brought our concerns to his door already.

I wish to raise today my concerns on another issue, namely, the lack of service from the new Irish Water helpline to public representatives throughout the country. When the legislation was going through the House to set up Irish Water I raised the issue with the Minister of State with responsibility for this area, Deputy O'Dowd, highlighting the need for public representatives to have access to and be made aware of any developments in their area.

Two weeks ago the place where I live was subject to a boil water notice. Although a public representative for 26 years and a resident of the area, I knew nothing about it for 36 hours. In fact, my wife was in bed sick with a pain in her stomach. I had to find out from someone else that we were on a boil water notice. When I contacted Irish Water I spent 45 minutes on the telephone to the public representative section of the company but I got no answer as to why we were on a boil water notice. I tried again the next day and I still got no answer.

The concern I have is the number of other people who drank that water and did not know anything about it. There were 2,000 houses approximately on boil water notice. The way we are being treated is a complete shambles. I raised this already in the House in a different context last week. I want the Minister to come to the House. I am asking the Leader to call on the Minister to come to the House to give a full report on what was promised to us in the debate on the setting up of Irish Water while the legislation was going through the House as well as at committee level - I raised the matter at the environment committee. We are not getting the service. The people I contacted did now know what county Carrick-on-Suir was in. That is how bad it is. It is unacceptable.