Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Irish Water is now issuing refund cheques to those who paid for their water. I suggest it would be timely for another one of the recommendations made by the Joint Committee on Future Funding of Domestic Water Services to be implemented. I refer to the recommendation that there should be parity of esteem between people living in the countryside who have been paying for their water and people living in urban centres who have been getting free water off the public mains.

The first point I want to make in this regard relates to people who are waiting for new group water schemes to be constructed. My home county of Mayo is especially affected by such delays. Seven areas have been waiting since 2010, when CLÁR funding was abandoned by a previous Government, for a new group water scheme to be built. The people in those areas cannot drink the water in their taps or use the water to wash their clothes. They are incurring considerable additional expense because the naturally occurring water in the terrain around them is not fit for consumption. They have waited and waited. They have paid for consultants. The scheme in question even went as far as a tender process before it went by the wayside when the CLÁR funding was abolished. Such schemes need to be looked after and funded in the context of the 2016-18 multi-annual rural water programme. People in parts of County Mayo like Kilmurry, Downpatrick, Carrowcastle and Fermoyle need to be given some hope that in the last year of the multi-annual funding programme, they will finally get some good news after many years of waiting. I might add that the people in question have absolutely no problem paying for their water.

The second point I want to make in this regard relates to people who are paying for their water through group water schemes, which are subsidised at the moment. It has been established that the subsidy paid by the Government is not enough to create parity of esteem with people in towns and cities. Group water schemes need increased funding. There must be an announcement in that regard. People in rural Ireland need fairness when it comes to water. It is time for the Government to do more than pay lip service to this issue.