Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Regional Group for the opportunity to contribute on this issue and for putting the spotlight on sustainable development for our regional and rural areas. I will start from the motion's last sentence, just as Deputy Harkin did, which calls for the Government "to put in place a transparent cost structure for new, and extensions to existing, water and waste water treatment infrastructure". It is an absolute necessity and it must be done urgently. I support the motion in general, although if I have time I will return to one part where there is a call for "a development lead infrastructure scheme to fast track infrastructural development in our towns and villages". I may come back to that aspect, although I have only four minutes. I express caution regarding what that term means. If I read it in a benign way, it is excellent. However, if I interpret it differently, it is to get around a planning process, and I would have serious concerns in that regard.

Turning to Irish Water and the comments made in that regard, I proudly co-signed a Bill in November 2016 to ensure that water was owned by the people of Ireland. That and subsequent Bills have gone nowhere, but that will be the first step in creating confidence and trust. If the Minister of State has any influence, it would be a wonderful legacy if we had a constitutional amendment stating we own the water. It belongs to all of us, and it is as essential as air and we cannot live without it. We have all quoted the EPA. I am ashamed that we are still quoting the EPA. In my town, raw sewage is released into our waters every day from 35 towns and villages, including Spiddal, Carrowroe, Roundstone, etc.. Progress has been made in some places, but not in others. Treatment at 19 of the State's 172 large urban areas failed the EU's mandatory standards set to protect the environment. Those 19 plants generate more than half of Ireland's sewage. We could go on.

What has happened? First, we should not have a kind of ground-zero memory. We should go back and realise that development was going in a particular direction, one which was unsustainable and has had detrimental effects on our country. We must learn from the pandemic to go a different way. We talk about transformative change, and, indeed, we are now hearing that we are working from home and we have gteics all over Connemara and other rural areas. Those are very welcome, but with that we need a commitment from the Government for balanced regional and rural development, which is not evident on the ground. It is certainly not evident in Connemara or in Kilmaine and Shrule, south Mayo, which is part of the Galway West constituency.

I am tired of the blame being attached to Irish Water. It should never have been created. Now that it has, we must ensure the water is owned by the people of Ireland. If Irish Water is going to manage it, then so be it. It must have transparency so that it comes under the auspices of the Committee of Public Accounts and the Comptroller and Auditor General. There is no monitoring of Irish Water now. It was set up so that it could be distant from us and we could blame it. We ran down the local authorities. County Galway has the local authority with the lowest level of funding in the country. It has no manager but has had an acting manager for years. There is no one to lead. That is what we have done to our local authority system. We have handed over to Irish Water all the expertise and memory that existed, and we are now left with a mess.

Therefore, I support this motion. I hope it is the start of a frank and open discussion and not the demonisation of those people and organisations that make submissions in respect of planning applications, such as An Taisce, for example. The planning system has worked, as long as it is resourced and adequately funded. Everybody, including An Taisce and myself, is entitled to make submissions on any planning permission application. The planning system should be so robust that it will be capable of dealing with those submissions in a timely manner.

See this speech in context