Fine Gael Private Members Motion in the Dáil in relation to the recent crisis Ireland faced following the recent severe weather

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Thursday, 28 January 2010

That Dáil Éireann:

  • notes the swift response and work of local authority workers during the cold weather emergency;
  • condemns the Government for its slow national response to the recent weather crisis;
  • is concerned that no national co-ordination plan for severe weather emergencies is in place to co-ordinate local plans at a national level;
  • recognises the social and economic hardship caused by water restrictions and by local transport network disruptions;
  • recognises that an inefficient, outdated and fragmented water network has contributed to water problems across the State;
  • notes with concern that on average 43% of Ireland’s treated water supply was lost through unidentified leaks before the recent severe cold weather;
  • notes the refusal of the Government to put additional financial measures in place to address severely damaged local and regional roads; and
  • recognises that the 32% cut in the regional and local road upkeep budget implemented by the Department of Transport last year compounded damage caused by cold weather; and

calls on the Government to:

  • establish a single water semi-State utility company to take over responsibility for water investment and management on a national basis;
  • re-allocate future water funding from the Exchequer to prioritise water conservation;
  • examine all engineering resources of the State to ensure a rapid remedy to widespread burst water mains;
  • develop and test as a matter of priority a national severe weather emergency plan that outlines the actions to be taken by the Government and its agencies; and
  • provide additional funding for the restoration of severely damaged local and regional roads for reasons of road safety and
  • to minimise costly reconstruction costs caused by further deterioration.

Speaking on this motion, Deputy Simon Coveney said: This is essentially a debate around learning lessons from the big floods and big freeze, which sums up our weather pattern for the past three months.

I will concentrate on two specific issues, the first of which is water management. I am aware that the Minister has in recent days proposed a change in the funding model for water provision in Ireland, namely, the introduction of water charges. The Minister needs to also examine the manner in which water services and treatment is delivered. We must never again allow a situation whereby half the population of a city the size of Cork is left without water for ten days. Between 16,000 and 20,000 households had no water for ten days because there was no back-up supply or no way of connecting to Cork County Council’s water supply network. We must now consider the establishment of a single water authority or, Fine Gael’s preference, a single water company to manage and deliver the infrastructure that is necessary to provide clean drinking water as cost effectively as possible. We spend €1.2 billion per annum on the provision of water to our population, some 50% of which is wasted by way of leakage through pipes before it reaches its destination. To quantify it in monetary terms, we are wasting hundreds of millions of euro of taxpayers money that could better be spent elsewhere because we have not put in place the type of infrastructure necessary to deliver water efficiently.

It is not good enough to simply change the manner in which we fund an inefficient way of delivering water. We must also change the structure and use local authorities as agents for delivery. We must give one authority or company the responsibility of delivering a comprehensive system for the entire country rather than have 34 local authorities doing their own thing in their own regions while dependant on the budget available to them in any particular year.

Secondly, I want to ensure that never again will we have elderly people in Cork city waking up to find flood waters lapping against the bottom of their mattresses. We have the technology and telecommunications infrastructure necessary to allow Government, throughout whatever emergency response unit it chooses, to warn people through mobile phones that flood waters are on their way. The Minister’s colleague, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Ryan, is currently considering proposals from Fine Gael in this regard. I hope he will take them on board.

The Government in a short space of time could require mobile phone companies to make available their mobile phone mast infrastructure to ensure it can make direct contact with people through their mobile phones. Every household in the country has a mobile phone and virtually every person has one. There is no excuse for not providing direct communications to warn people when emergencies or floods are on the way. I would ask the Minister to act on that without further delay.