Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Last night I attended an online meeting organised by Newbridge community development group about commuter issues and particularly the proposed new national fares strategy outlined by the National Transport Authority, NTA, last month. It is regrettable that the NTA, despite being invited, did not attend the meeting. The NTA needs to listen to these customers and people, as the consumers of a product. The direction of the national fare strategy will be good for people in commuter areas such as Newbridge and Kildare in particular.At the same time, there is a lack of clarity as to what the fares will be and in respect of the new generation ticketing. Affordable, accessible public transport is absolutely crucial on many levels, together with linkages around various parts of our towns and rural areas. It is important to keep the pressure on from the Seanad on this issue.

I have also been dealing with several water quality issues around south Kildare of late. It is regrettable that we cannot have a Commencement matter debate on dealing with Irish Water. There have been repeat issues of really bad discolouration, particularly in areas such as Drumsu in Rathangan. There are water pressure problems around the Baroda area of Newbridge. In addition, in the last few weeks, in the town of Newbridge and surrounding areas in County Kildare, many residents were forced to buy bottled water due to an overpowering smell of earth and must in the tap water. I have been liaising with Irish Water on the issue. It confirmed last week that specialist results received following the ongoing testing of the raw water indicated the presence of low levels of a substance called geosmin. Irish Water said it is not harmful but it is absolutely not acceptable to have water of such low quality flowing out of the taps in a major town like Newbridge. Irish Water needs to do more in terms of contingency planning, in my view, and to have a plan B in areas where our major water supply is compromised.

The last item I want to raise relates to early years staffing. A survey this year showed a huge level of dissatisfaction among those who are committed to giving our children the very best start in life. I commend the Government on having brought in extra financial supports for parents. That is very welcome but we absolutely must look after those who are working in the sector. Recruitment and retention remains a big issue but we have to come to grips with this issue to be able to support working families etc.