This morning, I met the directors of a number of aid agencies to discuss the question of clean drinking water in developing countries. On the morning the Government will launch its environmental programme, it is ironic that I raise the question of clean drinking water in one of the richest countries in the developed world.

According to the health services, the people of Galway face a health epidemic because of the contamination of their water supply. The Health Service Executive is now informing people — particularly the elderly, very young and vulnerable — that they could die from the contamination of water with cryptosporidium.

In response, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has given a juvenile and irresponsible performance and he has hived off blame to everyone except himself. As has been pointed out on numerous occasions, there has been a €600 million underspend across the broader region. This means that places like Oughterard, Headford, Clonbur and Claregalway have completely insufficient sewerage systems.

They have none.

In cases where sewage is not treated or where the lake is completely contaminated, the water supply of thousands of people is now causing the current problem. This was well known in advance. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, with his smug approach to the problem, has hived off blame and responsibility to everyone else. The Government and its immediate predecessor did not have the political will to make the investment necessary to deal with this problem.

People in Galway now speak of having had a morning cryptosporidium shower. They are disgusted at the failure to invest in sewerage works.

Is the water clean enough for Deputy Kenny to wash his hair?

If Deputy Brady were faced with the consequence of the Government's failure in the Galway area, he might not be so smart.

Hear, hear.

What do the Taoiseach and the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government intend to do about this matter, apart from giving glib answers to questions? There is great concern about the effect of a contaminated water supply on tourism in the area, the Galway economy and families with young babies and elderly members. Will the Taoiseach explain why this has happened and what he proposes to do about it?

He has no answer.

Irish drinking water standards are very good. They now stand at 97.6% compliance with EU requirements, according to the latest report, and almost 99% of public supplies, countrywide, have been assessed by the EPA as complying with all the key microbiological standards.

So, the water is grand. It is all an illusion.

The Government's investment over the period of the national development plan has delivered additional drinking water for a population equivalent to 1 million people. The priority under the new national development plan is to finish that job.

It is awful to have to listen to this.

We have provided almost €5 billion to build 900 new schemes for both drinking water and waste water.

All is well.

These schemes will address any remaining inadequacies in the current infrastructure.

Water, water everywhere, not a drop to drink.

The European Commission has identified Ireland and the United Kingdom as the two member states in which improvements in drinking water quality are significant and obvious. That is the overall position.

Would the Taoiseach drink the water in Galway?

I do not understand Deputy Kenny's complaint regarding what was said by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. A range of approximately six measures were agreed at the meetings. First, it was agreed that efforts by the engineers in the area to identify the source or sources of the outbreak will continue.

They are human sources.

Second, the water supply from Tuam will be increased to augment the city supply and the additional supply from this source will come on stream incrementally during the next two months. It was agreed that the old water treatment plant in Galway will be phased out — we hope by the middle of June — as additional supplies are delivered from the Tuam system, and that the installation of a water treatment package plant at Terryland in Galway to provide 18 million litres per day will come on stream before the end of the year.

That will only cure the source of the pollution in the long term.

Meanwhile, people will be poisoned.

There is also a longer term commitment to fast-track the advancement of the new treatment plant in Galway at a cost of more than €21 million and to provide €27.4 million for increased storage of water and conservation measures in Tuam, which will allow for additional water to be made available to the city. A range of other issues is being considered but those are the main points.

And the poisoning of the Corrib continues.

The Taoiseach's reply does not deal with the problem faced by the people of Galway and the greater Galway region. A similar problem exists in Ennis, where people are still on notice regarding water. The Department of the Environment and Local Government published a study of national urban waste water in April 2004, which contrasts with what the Taoiseach asserts.

Deputy Kenny is scaremongering. That study is three years old.

Considering the different levels of treatment, the study found that more than 50% of all plant and equipment at the eight primary treatment works was in condition grade 4 or 5 and 18% of the mechanical and electrical plant at the 82 secondary treatment works, excluding those with nutrient reduction factors, was in a similar condition. Grade 4 means serious structural deterioration and grade 5 means that the assets have collapsed or are derelict.

When the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Deputy Roche, visited Galway, his answers were far from satisfactory. The water and sewerage services capital budget has declined in recent years. Investment totalled €506 million in 2001, €487 million in 2002, €449 million in 2003, €439 million in 2004, €417 million in 2005 and €399 million in 2006. A significant proportion, over 50%, of these plants were in a seriously deteriorated condition or had collapsed, which was well known to the Department and the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. The capital injection for sewage treatment services was declining. The pictures shown on television last night of a polluted lake of the scale of Lough Corrib were a national scandal.

Hear, hear.

The fact that people in the region have to take their daily shower in cryptosporidium has not been dealt with. The Minister, Deputy Roche, might find that funny, but it is not funny to the people in Galway.

We have had more baloney and false promises.

If this had happened in a large area in Dublin, what would the response have been? Would the problem have been sorted out? What would have been the emergency response? Are the people in Galway, especially those suffering financial hardship, entitled to free water while the matter is being addressed? Does the Taoiseach agree that the response from Government should be much stronger? While there are water tankers, people in Galway cannot use the water in their taps. They are compliant taxpayers.

What about the local authority?

What about the Green Party?

As the Minister of State, Deputy Fahey, knows, Galway taxpayers contribute to the Exchequer.

That was a cheap shot and a cop-out.

I ask the Minister of State to allow Deputy Kenny to conclude.

The Government has had ten years——

It is Government incompetence.

The absent Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is to launch a programme today which he says will be in the top five in the world.

You were given the money and you did not spend it.

Let the Minister go back down to Galway with his programme and explain to the 100,000 people there what the Government intends to do about the problem, in view of the fact, which the Taoiseach did not mention, that there has been a €600 million underspend in the region of the Minister of State, Deputy Fahey.

I ask Deputy Kenny to give way to the Taoiseach.

You spent three years in control of Galway City Council and fought among yourselves.

The Minister of State, Deputy Fahey, sat at the Cabinet table and knew what was going on in Lough Corrib. Those people have been let down by the Government.

Deputy Kenny should conclude.

I am sorry to be disobedient, a Cheann Comhairle, but this is a matter of very serious concern to the people concerned.

One would not give the water in Galway to one's cattle.

The Taoiseach should be allowed to reply without interruption. Deputy Kenny submitted a question and is entitled to the courtesy of his own party to facilitate him in hearing the answer.

It is hard to put up with the Government members.

A man in Galway told me it would be better if his cattle were drinking milk and making water. He would be a richer man.

Deputy McCormack will have to leave the House if he continues to interrupt.

I will try to reply to Deputy Kenny's questions. Since 2000, we have invested €1.75 billion in more than 100 waste water treatment schemes, including major new treatment plants in Dublin, Wexford, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Drogheda, Dundalk and Westport.

It has not worked.

The water services investment programme for the period 2005-07 contained 899 projects at various stages of development, the full cost of which was €5 billion. I do not believe there was a lack of investment.

The answer to Deputy Kenny on the decline in the figures is that Ringsend, the most significant single water scheme carried out in Europe, was included in the base figures. When that scheme was finished, it came out of the base figures. The first ever concerted programme to address the quality of water in group water schemes is nearing completion. We introduced a Water Services Bill four years ago which is now finishing in this House. Work has gone on to consolidate and modernise the existing codes of water schemes.

I will not get myself into the middle of local Galway politics, but it is a fact that €21 million was provided over three years ago to allow the local authority to implement the scheme.

No resources were provided for the local authority.

Deputy McCormack is not the leader of his party.

I want to give a factual answer to Deputy McCormack's party leader. A sum of €21 million was given to Galway City Council to deal with the scheme and it could not agree on it.

The Government put an embargo on staff recruitment.

The Department was waiting for and encouraging a private scheme.

The Department cannot be blamed because the money was allocated but was not spent. I am more interested in helping people in Galway than in talking. I do not want to get into that.

It is too late now.

What about the past ten years?

I have outlined that the water supply from Tuam will be increased to augment the city supply, and that can be done fairly quickly. The old water treatment plant will be phased out fairly quickly. I hope the Tuam system will deliver more supply from the summer.

What about finding the source of the pollution?

That is being worked on. We are aware of all the issues surrounding that too. The installation of a water treatment package plant at Terryland will provide 18 million litres per day and should come on stream towards the end of the year. We can fast-track on two issues. These are the new treatment plant in Galway, which will now cost €21 million — that money has been allocated for a long time — and the provision of €27.4 million for increased storage and water conservation in Tuam, which will allow additional water to be made available to the city. The Minister and the Department have fast-tracked that project.

If the Government gets another five years, the whole country will be gone.