Water: Statements
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-21
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Richard O'Donoghue (II), Limerick County

The bottom line is that the Government should never have taken this off the local authorities. Uisce Éireann should never have been set up. We would have accountability then because, first, the councils could keep a good eye on what needs to be done with infrastructure and within the areas. The Deputies of this House could also keep in line with that and let the Government know where the money was being sent. The other thing was that they were actually getting in contractors to do the work under their remit, under their designs, on budget, on time. The contractor was making a few pounds but he was being overseen by the local authorities. It was being done.
Now we have Uisce Éireann, Irish Water or whatever you want to call it these days. Let us audit its books. How much is going into the top-end salaries and how much is going into the ground in replacing infrastructure? The EPA came out first saying, and all governments were coming out saying, "Farmers are the biggest polluters in Ireland."
The Government is the biggest polluter in Ireland in the statistics, because all the raw sewage is going into the rivers, which people are drinking. The Government is treating it and people are drinking it. The farmers are being shown that they are the only ones who are improving the network, with all that they are doing, keeping within the criteria and all the regulations, and upgrading their systems week on week and month on month. They are making changes, but the same Government that is over them is not. How can the Government go to people, tell them they are the polluters and fine them when, if it looks at anything that is being done at the moment, we have defunct systems all over the country? I have always said and I will say again that there are people building houses. They are designing and delivering them. Let them build the infrastructure for it within the criteria of what the Government wants. They can make money on delivering it, yet the Government cannot actually deliver something that has been fully paid for by the State. There is no accountability, which is why there is no delivery. That is why we do not get any messages back from Uisce Éireann. It is unaccountable.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-31T01:00:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-21