Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am here today to discuss a Commencement matter I raised three years ago. Here we are again. I will keep bringing it up. It concerns raw sewage going into our waterways and seas all over Ireland. I know we cannot fix anything overnight but I will keep asking about this.

At least four places in Clare are affected. I do not want to name them because that would be bad publicity for these beautiful places. The Inagh river flows through my village down to the sea in Lahinch. After heavy rainfall, I could send the Minister of State videos of raw sewage going down the river and into the sea. On numerous occasions, businesses and the beach in Lahinch have had to shut because of repeated problems with E. coli and raw sewage. There are many instances of people getting sick. A friend of mine has a child suffering from kidney failure who will forever be affected by it. Nothing is being done.

We have a lot to do and everybody wants to fix this, which is acceptable. However, what is not acceptable is that years ago, we were told Lahinch and Ennistymon would get a new plant by 2029. The EPA then issued a damning report stating that the pump station required a complete upgrade and the wastewater treatment plant resulted in significant overflows including more sewage into the Inagh river, and that work would have to be expedited. The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, has called for the work to take place. When will it be done?

It is not good enough. A voluntary group is sampling the water because the local authority only checked the water twice over the whole summer. As a result, we are afraid. We want everybody to come to north Clare, swim in the sea and feel safe. I feel weird saying this in public because I do not want to damn our beautiful area, but we also want it to be safe and clean. We have to prioritise places where raw sewage is going into the sea. We are not a developing country; this is a rich developed country. This is no longer acceptable.

It has to be a priority of Uisce Éireann and the State to build treatment plants in order that raw sewage is prevented from going into our rivers and seas. At this stage, it is backward and we are not a backward country. What is the Department doing about this? How can we prioritise this? I have raised the issue time and again. In the meantime, we are left to our own devices. We do not trust the water, so we are testing it ourselves.

I want to hear that we are going to do something and expedite matters, not just in Ennistymon, Inagh or Lahinch but also Doonbeg, Kilkee and all over Ireland. There are 34 places with no or totally insufficient treatment plans. Due to climate change, the way our rain falls is different. It falls more intensely, which results in storm water tanks getting full more quickly than they used to. They also store the raw sewage awaiting treatment. Everything comes out together. We know the climate has changed. One basic thing would be the installation of larger holding tanks while we are waiting for the multimillion euro payload of contractors, consultants and making a big deal of things over four years. At the very least, larger holding tanks should be installed as a short-term measure.

It is not acceptable that any village or town has to wait until 2029. We have to do better by the people. We are in government to do better and improve things. We have lots of money and are a wealthy country, and should not have raw sewage going into our waterways anywhere in Ireland. It is no longer acceptable. There are both short-term and long-term solutions but we need to expedite things and give people confidence that we are taking this seriously.