Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Eddie Fullerton dam, just north of Buncrana, is the biggest civil engineering project in the history of Donegal. It supplies water to a huge area and will now be extended. I rise today to ask the Leader to raise with the Minister for Housing, Planning and the Environment, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, the need for Irish Water to meet with Donegal's public representatives because the pipe network, which supplies water from the dam to the south Inishowen area, was not constructed to the required standard, something that is well known locally. It bursts again and again and private businesses, homeowners and public service providers are regularly affected by it. The matter has been raised with Irish Water but Irish Water has refused to even consider an investment programme to replace the pipes, even though it knows they were not constructed to the required standard.Not only are they not agreeing to invest in the replacement of these pipes but they are proposing to extend that water supply from the Inishowen Peninsula to Letterkenny, the major town and urban centre in Donegal, which is incredible. They refuse to listen to the concerns of public representatives in Donegal so I am asking that the Leader ask the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, to say to Irish Water that it needs to meet the public representatives. The company arrogantly refused to meet us about another issue in the north Inishowen area earlier this year. Irish Water representatives need to meet us about this issue and they need to agree an investment programme before the company considers pushing the water further on to Letterkenny. This is becoming farcical at this stage and I ask for an intervention from the Minister to make sure that this time Irish Water listens to the concerns of public representatives in Donegal, acts on them and ends this farce relating to the water pipe supply to south Inishowen.