Mattie McGrath urges halt to 'madness' of Dublin water pipeline

Deputy Mary McGrath. Goan maitha goethe, caan coel ar an cael dyrsig eespaad am a bwaikis a goaad, Dutth Fein agus nadineig eaubaran sanofig, for facilitating this topic an issue you tonight. Minister, we don't want to see another children's hospital saga. We in Tipperary are proud people, we don't anti Dublin, but we think this project is daft. I want to thank Leigh Minahan of Stop the Fight the Pipe campaign, I want to thank independent Councillor Seamie Morris and Emma Kennedy for her excellent report and analysis on this. It's apparently media reports have said that Irish Water have now said that the estimated cost of £1.3 billion that's in the National Development Plan, there would have been excess of that and they're waiting for Tinder documents to come in. I hope that, I'm disappointed Minister for Environment is not here, but I'm no disrespect to yourself Minister, I wish you well in your portfolio. I hope that you being the Green Minister will look at this and say this is too much interruption to our landscape, going through people's lands, the flora and fauna and all the different issues. Maybe you might get some of your colleagues in the Green Party who serial objectors to object to this because this is daft. The first thing they should do is fix the leaky pipes to 57% of the water. Every gallon or every litre of water put into the pipeworks in Dublin leaks before it gets to the houses or the businesses or places like this. 57%. There are some total world countries and Indian places that have had major investment in fixing leaks and they are able to do it. And we can't do it here in Ireland. Irish Water are all but bust, I'm told. There are many projects around the country, whether they be water schemes, sewer schemes, indeed the very poor areas that need new bore wells and boreholes and need new water supplies, they can't. Irish Water hasn't got a scent. It's a serious financial difficulty ever before Covid. We're going to go into this project like we did with the Children's Hospital. Blindfolded, hands behind their back, gagged and everything else. The original cost for the Children's Hospital was £400 million. Now it's approaching £3 billion. The original cost for this is £1.3 billion. I can guarantee you it won't be done for £2 billion. For what? To pump water from Tipperary all the way to Dublin, through your own county, Count Cola, and indeed have it in the pipes and the pressure of that new pipeline. This pipe, I can walk inside and there's a massive diameter of a pipe. Imagine the pressure and the valves that are not able to slow down the pressure to go into a faulty, weak, disintegrated pipe system in Dublin. Lead, asbestos, you name them, old pipes. There will be water breaks all over the place. It'll be like someone dropped some kind of a bomb on the city. So, Minister, I appeal to you to stop this madness before it goes ahead. As I said, the people who are opposed to this, not because they're anti-Dublin. I come from Tipperary and we are a county rich in resources, but we also have many, many borewells. The whole town of Clonmel is supplied by mountains and streams and borewells. Every other town and village, the vast majority of farms now, and private houses are on boreholes and borewells. And why can't we look at Dublin, it must be the same, and out into Wicklow, which isn't far out the road. Plenty, plenty of resources there to get this water locally. It's a fantasy project by the last government, and I think fantasies are not good, because we'll have to turn on this when it'll be too late. Why don't you look at the salinisation programme of the seawater? Should it be a bit innovative with your new government, your new ideas, your green energies, you're telling us all to retrofit houses and to do this and to that and do everything else? Why don't you look at this and examine this? Stop this pipe now, because there'll be CPOs issued, there'll be notice to treat issued, and the land will never be the same again. Anywhere that kind of major excavation comes out of land, it's fine, you make a road because you make the road as compacted, but the pipe will always keep sinking through the land. It'll be huge damage to the flora and fauna and to the rich heritage, as in those lands and fields and areas it goes through. So I'm appealing to you, Minister, to use your muscle in this government and show cause here, and have a proper investigation, and listen to the Kennedy analysis. Minister Noonan. I want to thank Deputy McGrath for putting his point so well. Since January 1st 2014, Irish Water has had statutory responsibility for all aspects of water service planning, delivery and operation at national, region and local level. Irish Water is a single national water service authority and takes a strategic nationwide approach to asset planning and investment. Existing water supply sources and infrastructure for the Eastern and Midlands region do not have the capacity or resilience to meet present or future requirements in a sustainable way. In the Greater Dublin area, some 82% of water supply comes from the River Liffey. Some 40 to 45% of the total water volume of the Liffey is abstracted to meet the water supply needs, and this is unsustainable. The level of dependency on this one source also gives rise to very real concerns regarding the security of water supply for the region. A significant new water source is needed. As well as securing a reliable supply for the Greater Dublin area, Irish Water's proposals to supply the Eastern and Midlands region will enable the provision of treated water to communities in North Tipperary, Offaly, Leash, Westmeath, Kildare, Meath and Wicklow. It would represent the biggest investment in Ireland's water infrastructure in over 60 years. This major project is still at the pre-planning stage of development. Once planning is secured and the design of the final scheme is completed, detailed costs for this project will be made available on completion of the tender process, in accordance with the Public Spending Code. A preliminary design project cost estimate, which will be an input to the cost-benefit analysis, is scheduled to be published in 2021. Irish Water will be required to outline its position on the project's funding model and how it will ensure value for money in its efficient and effective timing to our department. Given the scale of the project, it will also require a sign-off by government at key stages of the project development and in accordance with the Public Spending Code. Finally, as background, I should state that Irish Water delivers its service in accordance with its statutory water services strategic plan published in October 2015. This sets out a high-level strategy for over 25 years to ensure the provision of clean, safe drinking water, effective management of wastewater, environmental protection and support for economic and social development. Beneath that plan, Irish Water's funding plan for 2019-24 sets out a multi-annual strategic funding requirement of £11 billion towards 2024. This comprises of £6.1 billion investment in infrastructure and assets of £4.9 billion in operating costs. This significant multi-billion euro investment programme is to ensure the continued operation, repair and upgrading of the country's water and wastewater infrastructure to support social and economic development across the state and continued care of the water environment. It is strategically important for the future development of the country. We certainly cannot meet our housing needs and certainly, as was proven earlier on this year, when we had hose pipe bans. I think it is vitally important that we really do have a secure and safe supply. This does require to look at all options in terms of water service provision for the country. Thank you. Deputy McGrath. I am disappointed with the Minister, the Green Party Minister, that he has not given the cast and guarantee that they would look at all avenues. I want to repeat, we are not anti-government, anti-development, but we have every town and village in my county, almost all of them, some of the major towns are okay, but most of them are at capacity in their wastewater treatment plant. Many of them have water outages in dry summers. It is not so dry this summer, but we had a hose pipe bans, indeed, after all the rain in February. Look, this is just a fantasy project, as I described it, and it is going to cost too much money. And as well as the leaky pipes, and we put the pressure on them, and the extra number of leaks that will occur, there is also seepage back into the pipes. When repairs have been done, there are all kinds of, you know, kind of unsavoury items and unsavoury, you know, tear, leech, every kind of stuff. So this is reckless. I mean, I can tell you a minute, sir, if we were honest with ourselves, I'm sure there are many hotels and many private enterprises in Dublin City that have boreholes in their backyards and backyards, and they're there for nearly half a century and more. So it's not food that we have to, it's only the Liffey we have to use. And we have those borewells, we have them all over the country, so why not have them here? I said we have the reservoir out in Blessington. We also have, as I said, and we should be looking at desalinisation of our seawater, and be looking like many other countries can do this. Irish water, as I said, haven't the penniless that broke. The government decided to waver the cost of water. I know the value of water and the cost of water and how much it costs to produce water. We all accept that. But this is a fantasy project that's going to lay bare all the other projects, set them back by decades for being done if this goes ahead. And we're not too late. Stop this. We would lift Arnaud Children's Hospital into the big black hole that it is. This is going to be a long black hole, from Tipperary right through Offaly and Kildare, right to Dublin, and it's going to destroy other projects. For decades, as I said, and please, Minister, and the Green Minister, please stop this madness and the effect it happening on ecology and land masses, and farmers as well, and people who want to carry on their business. Uninterrupted. The delivery of the water supply project from the Shannon project is a key strategic Irish water investment priority under the National Development Plan 2018-2027. The cost of the project will be identified and updated throughout the project development process in line with the procedures of the new public spending code, a code which seeks to address some of the cost estimation issues that arose in relation to the children's hospital. The project is needed to address the capacity issues in the region, support jobs in the economy, and to ensure that the supply is fit for purpose to withstand extreme weather, such as droughts, storms, and to address climate change. It will enable the provision of treated water to communities in North Tipperary, Offaly Leash, Westmeath, Kildare, Meath and Wicklow, as well as in Dublin. I take on board the point Deputy McGrath has made in relation to going after unaccounted for water. I think that is vital that a significant investment is put into going after unaccounted for water in the greater Dublin area. I think the ambition on that needs to be really significant. And I do think that it is important too, having conversations and discussions with Irish water, that we need to look at groundwater abstraction and looking at other sources of water other than river water. But I do think that this is a strategically important project. And I would say finally that there will be plenty of opportunity for all views to be heard in relation to the project as it is developed and undergoes various consent procedures. So there will be a public element and public consultation. And I think that would be the correct and proper area to voice the concerns of the public and general issues that may be presented in relation to this very key strategic project. Thank you very much.