Dublin water supply and charges
Senator Whelan highlights water shortages despite heavy rainfall and calls for a coherent plan on reservoirs, metering and charges to secure supplies for households, farming and investment.
I would like to take up the point raised by Senator O'Donovan. It is no secret that most of this country is swamped and water logged and that there has been a huge loss of crops and livestock this year. Last winter and the preceding year were the wettest on record yet bizarrely water in Dublin and the surrounding areas has been rationed during the past month. It is absurd that despite non-stop rainfall, water is being rationed.
As I have stated previously in this House no reservoir has built in this country since 1940. Bord na Móna and Dublin City Council have had a plan in the pipeline for the past 12 months to build a new reservoir at Garryhinch Portarlington to supply Dublin and the greater Leinster region. Bord na Móna has the resources to build this reservoir, which it is estimated will cost €500 million and will create 1,000 jobs over the five year period it would take to build it.
The previous Government spent much of its time on plans in regard to building of the Bertie Bowl and other vanity projects and seriously neglected important infrastructure such as the repair of the pipe network for our water supply-----
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The Aviva Stadium is a work of art.
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-----and the construction of a new reservoir.
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The previous Government was responsible for the construction of the super motorway on which the Senator travels home.
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I ask that the Leader invite the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, to the House to explain when water metering will be introduced, in respect of which we are getting mixed messages from the Cabinet, and when water charges will be introduced. The new CEO of Irish Water took up his post this week, which is important. We need a coherent plan to ensure we have a sustainable, safe and secure source of water for Dublin, foreign direct investment, farming and the domestic sector. It is an absurdity that this Government could go down in history as the Government which allowed Ireland's capital city to run out of water.