Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 27 Jan 1994

Vol. 437 No. 7

Adjournment Debate. - North Dublin Water Supply.

Mr. Broughan

It is remarkable that, in perhaps one of the wettest countries in the world, for a period of six to eight weeks large areas of Dublin city had no water supply or had a very ineffective and inefficient water supply. We have been informed by the local authority that the northern fringe of Dublin is supplied with water from the Ballycoolen reservoir at Leixlip. For the last three or four months the water supply has been reduced by 1-1.5 million gallons of water per day, which is totally unacceptable. I hope the Minister will redress this problem.

In the weeks before Christmas in many districts in my constituency, estates such as Limewood, Eannafort and Clonshaugh, people had their heating systems on, with no water flowing through the pipes. For a number of weeks after Christmas districts which are not in my constituency — I am sure I can speak for my colleague, Deputy Róisín Shortall — such as Finglas and Glasnevin, had no water supply for up to four days at a time. This caused great inconvenience, particularly for families with children and senior citizens. Friends of mine who live in Raheny had the unenviable experience over Christmas of telling American relatives who were staying with them that it was not possible to take a shower. I imagine those Americans got a very bad impression of Ireland.

To add to the present difficulties, permission has been given for the building of 1,100 houses in the north of my constituency and permission is about to be given in another parish for 800 or 900 houses. Effectively, another town the size of Castlebar, which was referred to earlier, will be created without providing proper water supply. This is unacceptable. I have been informed that INTEL, which is located in Kildare, uses 500,000-750,000 million gallons of water per day. This water comes from what used to be our supply and is used to manufacture chips.

Mr. Dukes

They got it from us in the first place.

Mr. Broughan

We would like some redress.

Mrs. Doyle

Maybe they will relocate the dump proposed for Kill on the north side of Dublin.

Mr. Broughan

I accept that the Minister has taken some action in this regard. As chairperson of the general purposes committee of Dublin Corporation I was pleased to attend the opening of the extension at Ballymore Eustace. The key problem seems to be in the Ballycoolen reservoir in Leixlip. Fingal County Council has a tender for £4 million for absolutely necessary works, for example, pump and ground water improvements at Ballyboughal Ring in Fingal, but there seems to be no movement in this area.

I accept that the Minister has taken some action, I applaud him for his efforts in helping to finish the north city arterial watermain which will bring water from the south side of the city to the north side. I call on him to help Fingal County Council and the authorities in County Kildare in their efforts to restore an adequate water supply to the north side of Dublin.

The Minister might be interested to know that one of my predecessors who was responsible for the water supply in Dublin has a statue erected in memory of him in O'Connell Street. The people of Dublin are very aware of the importance of a decent water and sanitation system. If there are no improvements in this respect in the short term there will be no statues erected in memory of me or any other members of the Government. Rather people will make their displeasure clearly known. I ask the Minister to take some action on the water supply in north Dublin city.

Mr. Dukes

If no immediate action is taken the Deputy will resign.

Minister of State at Department of the Environment (Mr. Browne

, Wexford): I thank Deputy Broughan for raising this issue.

I would like first to clarify my Department's position in relation to water supplies. As the Minister explained recently in reply to a parliamentary question from Deputy Broughan, matters pertaining to the operation of water services, including the maintenance of supplies and pressures, are the responsibility of the local authority concerned. The Department's function is limited to prioritising, assessing and providing funding for new or improved water and sewerage facilities from among proposals submitted to us by local authorities.

In the context of overall water supply for the greater Dublin area, my Department is in regular and close contact with the relevant local authorities with a view to ensuring as co-ordinated an approach as possible to capital works so as to anticipate and respond to new requirements and problems. My understanding is that the Dublin authorities are doing everything possible to ensure an equitable distribution of the available water supply.

Expenditure on the water and sanitary services programme in 1994 will amount to an historically high £122 million. By any standards this is a very significant investment, as is the provision of approximately £605 million in the National Development Plan for the period 1994-99. Maintaining this high level of capital provision is seen by the Government as the logical consequence of the commitments given in the 1990 Environment Action Programme.

The greater Dublin area has already benefited from a substantial share of recent investment in water services. Since 1990 over £44 million has been spent on water and sanitary facilities in the area. This has enabled the completion of several important schemes including the contract 1B of the Ballymore Eustace water treatment plant, which increased daily capacity at the plant to 50 million gallons. In addition, my Department has recently approved the advertisment of tenders for the next phase of this scheme which will increase treatment capacity to 70 million gallons per day. The provision of a sophisticated telemetry system to enable the management not only of water production, but also for the distribution of supplies, was completed in 1993. In addition, work is ongoing on the rehabilitation of Dublin watermains.

The problem experienced with the water supply in the Dublin area largely relate to quantity. These problems are being addressed by the Department on a number of fronts: source augmentation, the provision of trunk delivery mains and the refurbishment of the various distribution systems.

I have already outlined the plans for the development of the Ballymore Eustace plant. Two further schemes are central to alleviating the problems in the north city area. The benefits of the first of these, the north city arterial watermain, will come on-stream in February when phase one of this scheme is commissioned. The second scheme is the Leixlip water treatment plant. In this regard, the Department has had extensive discussions with the Fingal Council in relation to the upgrading and expansion of plant capacity. In addition, tenders for a new intake at Leixlip are being examined in the Department. A decision in relation to these tenders will be made in the context of the 1994 provision.

There can be no doubt that the Government has made, and is set to continue, substantial investment in Dublin's water infrastructure. I would like to assure the Deputy that everything possible, both short and long term, is being done to ensure that an adequate supply of good quality drinking water is available to the people of Dublin.