Róisín Garvey (Green Party)
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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.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Garvey for raising this important issue in Lahinch and more broadly around the country. I will cut to the chase with the Senator. The Department has told me the new treatment plant for Lahinch is currently at feasibility stage, it expects to be at planning permission stage in 2024 and ready for construction in 2025. It is a €20 million to €50 million project. In the meantime, Uisce Éireann is working with the local authority and others to minimise impacts. That is the plan. The Senator is quite right; 2029 is too late. I am very pleased to be able to say that it will be delivered sooner than that. I know the Senator will keep on top of this to make sure that no part of this is missed.

The Senator is absolutely right about addressing the impact of climate change. Much heavier falls of water has an impact. I see it my constituency in Dublin Bay. As the Senator has said, local groups can be very active and helpful in drawing awareness to these different issues. In my area, we campaigned to have a UV treatment facility installed in the water in the plant in Ringsend. Over the winter, that was tested to see how much of a difference it would make. It seems that while it helps during the summer, testing over the winter found it did not have that much impact. The real issue is the River Liffey and Elm Park stream going into the bay. It was about very heavy rainfall, which the Senator mentioned, and how much the storm overflow can impact rivers. It can be the storm overflow facilities, as well as other things that are within people's control, including dog fouling on the beach. Communities can do a range of different things to try to help.

Nevertheless, Uisce Éireann has overall statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services' planning and development. The programme for Government commits to a capital investment plan for the whole country.It is probably worth setting out that beyond Dublin Bay and Lahinch today. The national development plan up to 2030 commits to almost €6 billion of investment to be undertaken by Uisce Éireann in the period 2021 to 2025, of which more than €4.5 billion will be voted Exchequer funding in respect of domestic water services. In budget 2023, it was announced that more than €1.78 billion had been allocated to support all water services. The overall investment will deliver significant improvements in our public water and wastewater services.

The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, holds Uisce Éireann to account for its environmental performance. Since 2014, the EPA has reported up to 50 towns and villages with untreated sewage being discharged from a public sewer system. That is clearly not acceptable. That is why Uisce Éireann is focusing on resolving the legacy. Since 2014, 60% by volume of the raw sewage discharging has been resolved through targeted investment in new sewerage infrastructure. I believe Uisce Éireann is on track to eliminate the majority of raw sewage discharges by the end of 2025. The size and scale of that work is very significant with an estimated €750 million investment.

By way of update for the Seanad, Uisce Éireann has completed works to provide treatment plants at 23 locations now. In addition, construction is under way at 16 other locations across the country with a number due to finish in the coming months. Works will start at one more location before the end of this year. By the end of 2023, construction works will either be complete or under way at 40 of the 50 locations identified by the EPA. Uisce Éireann is progressing projects in the remaining ten locations and will be lodging planning applications for some of those in the coming months. Serious challenges will remain until this is resolved. Uisce Éireann is also trying to make sure that new capacity is made available for housing and the increased population and pressure that will put in place. Uisce Éireann has a plan to complete all the works at all of the plants by 2030. I am glad to have been able to provide an update specifically with regard to Lahinch.

Róisín Garvey (Green Party)
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That is very positive. That is a big jump from 2029 to 2025. I cannot wait to tell the people of north Clare who have been volunteering to try to clean the beaches and do the water testing, some of whom have gotten sick themselves, including my friend's child who got kidney failure and nearly died. That is, therefore, really positive.

Uisce Éireann has to up its game when it comes to citizens and engagement because people never know what is going on. People from Milltown Malbay are always losing their water and they ring me because there is nobody on the council or in Irish Water to ask what is going on and answer as to why they do not have water or when they will get it back. There is a communication issue. If State agencies could just improve their communication, it would make people's lives much less stressful. They get so stressed out because they cannot find out for how long the water will be gone or what the problem is and why it is brown for so long. I do my best to try to find out but sometimes I do not know if it is the local authority or Irish Water I should be talking to either. I know it is taking over but during this transition, it seems to be chaotic. Irish Water has done a lot better. We have done much more as a Government in the past three years than we have seen probably in the past 40 years. We are, therefore, improving. It is great to have positive news about the Lahinch and Ennistymon treatment plant today. I thank the Minister of State for that.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I could not agree more with the Senator regarding the way in which State agencies - I am not singling out Uisce Éireann - lean into the citizens and residents of this State and provide information to them in a really stakeholder and customer focused way to make it as easy as possible for people to access the information they deserve to have at every point in their lives. When a disruption or moment of vulnerability happens or any sort of inconvenience of this kind where we know and have the information, being able to communicate it to them really clearly should be an absolute priority.