John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to ask for a debate on Irish Water at some stage, hopefully between now and Christmas. I ask for this because of the quality of water in my town of Dundalk, a town of 42,000 people, over the past 18 months. Undoubtedly, Irish Water is very good at communicating with Oireachtas Members and councillors. We all get emails and updates every day. I cannot fault its level of communication, but what I can fault and want to call into question is the type of responses. For the past 18 months in County Louth, we have been getting the exact same responses about why the water quality is so poor in Dundalk. We are told that there is sediment in the pipes and when issues happen, the sediment rises up. To put into context what that means, when you turn on a tap now in Dundalk, brown water runs straight out for the first minute. The advice from Irish Water is to let the tap go for a minute and after that you can drink it. That is not an acceptable solution. It has been happening sporadically for 18 months. I am not rising in the Seanad today just because it has happened in the past two days. This has been happening consistently now for 18 months. It is not acceptable for Irish Water to have the same excuse for 18 months. It leads me to believe there is something else happening. Is there another reason for this? Is there something that Irish Water is not telling us? It cannot be the same excuse consistently every time. It is simply not acceptable in a town of 42,000 people that they do not have quality drinking water, that they are being forced to buy bottled water, and that they are afraid to use the water that comes out of their taps. I am convinced it is not only an issue in my town. I am sure it happens throughout the country. I would appreciate it if the Leader could organise a debate on Irish Water at some stage between now and Christmas.