Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, who is passionate about trying to address the issues in the motion. I do not think there is any Senator, as Senator Martin said, who is more passionate about water and water quality than Senator Garvey. The Minister of State will recall that she and I tabled a Commencement matter on this last year.

The commitment in the programme for Government on water and water quality, as Senator Boyhan has said, is very strong. It is very clear the Government will have to deliver. It is pretty clear, even if any of us forget it, that Senator Boyhan knows it line by line and will hold us to account on it. I agree with a number of Senator Boyhan's points on Irish Water. Irish Water makes sense in terms of dealing with major infrastructure projects but taking away the daily maintenance of the system was a mistake. When local authorities had responsibility, it was easy for a councillor or anyone else to ring up the local engineer to say there was a leak on a particular road or a problem with the water supply and the engineer was able to address it. It was a mistake to take those powers away from local government, which had maintained our water system for 120 years. We needed a national agency to deal with water infrastructure and this is very clear. We need major investment in water infrastructure. I entirely agree with the comments made by previous speakers so I will not repeat them.

I will put this issue in the context of our rural future, the Government strategy, strategies on remote working and how we will get balanced regional development. If we are to get balanced regional development and people living in our small villages and rural communities, what we need are the three "Ws". We need Wi-Fi, water and wastewater. If we are to move away from the strategy of one-off rural housing, and I do not want to get into that debate here, and encourage people to live in nearby villages to ensure those villages are sustainable, then we have to have water and wastewater supplies in those villages. In most places throughout the country, and the Minister of State knows Kilkenny, which is the same as Clare, Wexford, Waterford or any other county, those villages do not have the water and wastewater supply. I look at my area of north Wexford, where we have huge demand for housing in Gorey and the water system is under pressure. In only one village in all of the surrounding areas is there any water or wastewater capacity. People cannot live in their local village. It is incumbent on the Government to address the question of water and wastewater infrastructure for our small villages if we are to have any form of balanced regional development. There is no point in talking about our future rural strategy if we do not put that infrastructure in place.

We often hear the statistics, and Senator Garvey was correct. When we look at the EPA figures that are published annually, which are about how our rivers and water supplies are deteriorating in places, the most recent figures show that 53% of rivers, half of our lakes and only 38% of our estuaries have satisfactory ecological health. For a country that is supposed to value water that is not good enough. We often speak about these statistics but we when we think about the real impact I am very conscious of the Ounavarra River that flows into Courtown Harbour near my home. Earlier this year, there was an oil spill that had huge knock-on implications for the ecological life of the river and for local fishermen and fisherwomen who wanted to fly fish in the river. The river flows out into the sea. We are very fortunate that Seal Rescue Ireland is based in Courtown Harbour and it has a concern about the oil that will continue to flow.

If we are going to speak about protecting our blue flags and the importance of our blue flag beaches, addressing some of these challenges is very important.We cannot stress enough how important that is, not just in its own right, but in how it impacts on many other aspects of Irish life.

I wish to make two further comments, the first of which is on the important role of the group water schemes and the community and voluntary work done in that regard across the country. Interestingly, the role played by women, particularly that of the Irish Countrywomen's Association, in the development of rural water schemes is often under-acknowledged. These schemes have done a great deal to clean up our water down to the years and it is important that support be made available to them.

Second, clean water is not just important nationally. As a country, we should continue to advocate strongly for clean water globally. Some 700 million people do not have access to clean drinking water and approximately 2.5 billion lack sanitation. I am happy that our overseas development aid policy prioritises clean water. For example, we support the UNICEF project in Zambia and Liberia. The challenge of ensuring clean water globally will be significant. Climate change has an impact on it, just as it does here. Consider the salinisation of the Bangladesh delta and what is happening in parts of Africa. Globally, we need to be a beacon of light on the question of clean water.

I strongly commend Senator Garvey, who is a wonderful advocate on this issue, and I support the motion. I urge that all of the commitments in the programme for Government, which Senator Boyhan can rightly quote, be implemented but that we also go beyond them.