I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 20, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on water quality oversees the implementation of programme for Government commitments in relation to issues affecting Ireland's water, including those related to agriculture, forestry, land-use change and wastewater treatment. Water quality is vital to the well-being of our society, economy and environment. The programme for Government commits to improving water quality. The EPA recently published Water Quality in 2025: An Indicators Report, which signals annual changes and key indicators for water quality. In 2025, some improvements were recorded at a local level, although there had been no overall improvement in water quality nationally, with 54% of rivers recorded as having good or better biological quality. While the EPA analysis shows that significant challenges remain, it is important to recognise the progress that has been made. An example of positive improvement is the Ballyteigue-Bannow catchment in Wexford seeing the biological quality of a number of its rivers improve. Last year's budget allocated almost €2.5 billion to the delivery of water services. That is an increase of €612 million on 2025. As part of this, €42 million in funding has been allocated to the 2026 water quality capital programme. Uisce Éireann is investing more than €2.3 billion in stand-alone projects at 108 wastewater treatment plans. This will deliver ten new wastewater treatment plant upgrades where current discharges place significant pressures on water bodies. The water action plan published last year sets out over 150 actions to protect, improve and restore water quality. These include: the implementation and tracking of water action plan actions; the development of a stronger sixth nitrates action programme; the Farming for Water European Innovation Partnership project; and the national barrier mitigation programme, which will support fish migration and water quality. The Minister, Deputy Browne, published the sixth nitrates action programme in December. It will run until 2028. This plan gives effect to the nitrates directive, which governs the management of nitrates loss from agriculture to water bodies. On foot of the measures included in this plan, in December 2025, the European Commission granted Ireland a three-year extension to its nitrates derogation. The Minister, Deputy Heydon, is working with his officials to address key conditions within the derogation decision. These include operationalising the environmental assessments to demonstrate enhanced compliance with respect to the nitrates derogation, the habitats directive and the water framework directive. It will be important to safeguard the economic contribution of farmers in the areas most affected by the derogation while also implementing workable solutions for water quality. Last year, the Government published Water and Agriculture: A collaborative approach. This plan sets out a range of measures that address the twin objectives of improving water quality and building a convincing case for the maintenance of Ireland's derogation from certain aspects of the EU nitrates directive. Additional information not given on the floor of the House The Environmental Protection Agency recently released its report, Domestic Waste Water Treatment System Inspections 2025. This details the findings of septic tank inspections by local authorities in 2025. A total of 1,466 septic tank inspections were carried out in 2025, targeting areas of greatest risk from an environmental and health perspective. Of these, 59% failed inspection, with many posing a risk to nearby rivers and drinking water wells. Since 2013, 7,212 septic tanks have failed inspections, with 84% fixed by the end of 2025. Improved resolution of faulty septic tanks by homeowners has been aided by increased Government grant support. The water quality Cabinet committee provides a focus to drive the improvement of water quality. The Cabinet committee met most recently on 30 October and will meet again in July.
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Did the Deputy say 50 years?
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I would love a swim now. I will not get one.
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I am working too hard all day and will not get the chance. The Deputies have all made me very envious. Everyone is going swimming and we are in here. We should reflect. Deputy ‘Chap’ Cleere made a very valid point in terms of Mullinavat and Inistioge. I have been saying this to Irish Water. As the Deputy knows, one of the outcomes of our discussions has been developer-led treatment plants. There were some decisions made on that, but it is in terms of naturally based water treatment processes which would then enable developer-led waste treatment to be put in for villages and towns, because Irish Water has said it will never get to them. It will be doing the bigger stuff and it will not get out to the villages and towns around Ireland. That has been decided upon. We need to do more than that, if I am honest. I am not quite satisfied that is sufficient, but it is a start. We have many towns which have basic facilities in terms of additional housing contiguous to the village and so on. I am with the Deputy on that one. Deputy O’Rourke spoke about Kells and the combined sewer investment. Again, I will talk to Irish Water. There is progress and work on that but I will certainly raise it with Irish Water. Deputy McGreehan gave a very interesting presentation on septic tanks. She said the scheme is too narrowly focused. I will examine that. The EPA recently released a report on domestic wastewater treatment system inspections in 2025. It is interesting that 1,400 septic tank inspections were carried out and 59% failed inspection, with many posing a risk to nearby rivers and drinking water. Since 2013, 7,000 septic tanks failed inspections, with 84% fixed by the end of 2025. There is Government grant support, as the Deputy said. I will speak to the Minister. The Deputy is saying to broaden it out and have a more proactive approach. That is a very good idea and I will see if we can activate that as opposed to a reactive one. I could not agree more with Deputy McCormack. It is the eastern midlands project. I did not realise that the midlands was the second phase. In my view, if we are going up along, we need to sort it out and do the midlands. By the way, it will be the best argument for the east as well. Some people are worried about it and opposing it but it is absolutely essential for the future of the country the that project gets off the ground and developed in terms of water supply and wastewater. It will have a negligible impact on the Shannon or ecology, in my view. It should have happened earlier. This Government has taken a decision in terms of a fundamental piece of infrastructure that simply has to happen. The midlands is a natural growth area that would take pressure off the east and whose time has come for a broader-based economic development prospect. Between the energy side and this project, that gives us the fundamentals to do that. All politics is local but I note Deputy Ó Murchú wants a meeting at corporate level.
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My experience in life is that the engineer or person on the ground might know an awful lot more than the corporates in terms of specific pipes and so on. I will pursue it and I will raise the fact that the Deputy has raised it with me. Deputy Connolly has a sensible proposal. The bathing season of June to September does not make sense any more. Particularly since Covid, an awful lot more people swim all 12 months round. I interviewed Professor Luke O'Neill some time back, before I became Taoiseach. Cold water is very good for you, apparently. It is very good for the immune system. People are swimming all year round. Deputy 'Chap' Cleere should try it some time.
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It makes absolute sense to carry out testing, particularly in rural towns and villages, during the festive season and the winter when there are many swimming events, such as on Christmas Day, new year's eve and new year's day. A lot of people gather in those areas for those events. It is a very good point. I will get the Minister to send a circular to the local authorities on that. Deputy Cullinane said to inquire with Irish Water about Portlaw and Woodlands. I hope he does not mind but I better inquire with the Minister of State, Deputy Mary Butler as well. She is from Portlaw, as the Deputy knows. I will try to sort out what is happening and what the county council is doing.
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We have a number of areas where things are not taken in charge. These things should be facilitated by the agencies. I got the message from Deputy Boyd Barrett but he went from tropical weather to torrential rainfall within one minute.
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Within three days.
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I am trying to work out when the torrential rainfall was but the point is well made. There is a fundamental issue there and that is why we are putting €2.5 billion into this to do some very substantial wastewater infrastructure. Dublin is one of the areas that is probably most impacted because of the access to the coast, the huge population and so on. Deputy Paul Murphy essentially made the same point in terms of the impacts on swimmers. This is a public health issue and we cannot take it lightly. When warnings are given we have to take them on board because it can result in significant illness for people who could be immunosupressed or whatever, which would be doubly dangerous for them. Deputy Tóibín-----
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I will examine it with Irish Water. They make a very good black pudding in Newport as well, by the way.
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I will certainly look into it and check with Irish Water as to why. It might be an operational or planning issue. I do not know but I will check with them.
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Deputy Whitmore referenced 59%. This is a very serious point which I have raised with Irish Water. In my view, there should not be operational errors or non-performance which then leads to poor water quality. The Irish water authority should be the personification of excellence in terms of clean water. There has been some pretty poor evidence in some areas where standards have dropped. In fairness to the 47 best-paid employees, I would say they were not involved.
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Collectively, there is a question about ethos here. We have had presentations from the EPA and Irish Water and this is an issue.
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Deputy Heneghan, too, raised the issue of water quality. You are looking okay but, that said-----
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You are looking very well, actually. You are invigorated from your swim.
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However, at the same time, we will-----
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 21 to 37, inclusive, together. I note the announcement of the resignation of the Uniter Kingdom Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, earlier this week, and acknowledge the very significant role he has played in resetting the Irish-British relationship, as well as relations between the United Kingdom and the European Union, during his time as Prime Minister. Since Prime Minister Starmer took office two years ago, he has worked with us to set a new direction and depth in the relationship between Ireland and the United Kingdom for the benefit of all our citizens, North-South and east-west. Our two Governments also took an important step forward in dealing with the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland, publishing a joint framework on addressing the legacy of the Troubles. As I said this week, Keir is a person of great ability, decency and honour and I want to wish him, his wife Victoria and their family the very best in the next chapter in their lives. I have no doubt that his successor as Prime Minister will wish to continue to deepen and strengthen the relationship between the United Kingdom and Ireland, and we will continue to work in furtherance of that objective. I hosted a United Kingdom-Ireland summit in Cork on 12 and 13 March. This was the second summit in a series initiated in Liverpool last year, at which Prime Minister Keir Starmer and I agreed a new comprehensive programme of strategic co-operation: United Kingdom-Ireland 2030. This year’s summit was an opportunity to review progress on United Kingdom-Ireland 2030 and to identify further areas for co-operation and work to be taken forward across government in collaboration with United Kingdom counterparts. The summit in Cork had an extensive programme over two days, reflecting the significant nature of this bilateral relationship. The opening engagement was a round-table event attended by businesses and business representative groups to explore issues related to trade and investment and what Ireland and the United Kingdom can do together to further our already substantial economic relationship. The Prime Minister and I also had the opportunity to meet representatives of the Ireland-UK Youth Forum, established in January 2026 in fulfilment of a commitment made at last year’s summit. The aim of the forum is to ensure that a new generation is involved in the strengthening of relations across these islands. The summit programme also included a civic and cultural reception in Cork City Hall and a research- and innovation-focused visit to the Tyndall National Institute. Prime Minister Starmer and I also met over dinner on 12 March. The summit plenary, held in Fota House, saw a wide-ranging discussion on achievements to date under United Kingdom-Ireland 2030, and on shared ambitions to see co-operation deepen and deliver to 2030 across a range of areas, including energy security and the transition to clean energy, protection of subsea infrastructure, cybersecurity, cultural exchange and competitiveness. We also discussed wider international issues, including the Middle East, the Gulf region and Ukraine. Additional information not given on the floor of the House We agreed a joint statement reflecting the overall theme of the summit, Shared Prosperity, Shared Seas, Shared Ties, which set out achievements over the past year and looked ahead to future work together to the mutual benefit of both countries. I was accompanied at the summit by the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance, Deputy Simon Harris; the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence, Deputy Helen McEntee; the Minister for Climate, Environment, Energy, and Transport, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, and the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, Deputy Jim O’ Callaghan. Accompanying Prime Minister Starmer were Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero; Emma Reynolds, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Business and Trade and Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
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Deputy O'Rourke asked about the EU asylum pact and the common travel area. The European Union asylum pact creates a structure that is positive, firm and robust. It has critics on the left and it has critics on the right. One side is saying we are not going far enough and the other is saying that we are going too far in terms of the returns aspect. We need to protect the common travel area because it is of enormous value to our citizens. Equally, as others have said, it creates challenges in terms of migration flows, particularly with people coming from the UK into Northern Ireland and over the Border. That is reality. The Minister for justice has been in touch with the home secretary. There was a call last week. We discussed this during the UK summit. I do also believe, in terms of Operation Sonnet and other operations, that there is strengthened monitoring of traffic and people coming across, and that there is checking of public transport and other areas. There will never be a hard Border. There cannot be a hard Border. Deputy Tóibín also raised this issue and made a claim of 85%. I do not have a precise figure on that.
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Deputy Tóibín then went on to give a precise figure. I will just leave it-----
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The point is I think it is high. I am not arguing the figure, but the point I would make is there is a need for data on this. There are also less and less coming in through airports because of controls and so on that have been implemented over the last two to three years. There is an issue, but I am not clear. Could the Deputy flesh out his proposals and send me a paper on the Irish Sea border, and how that would operate and could be implemented? That is challenging as well and we need to be honest with people when ideas like that are floated. We do need more monitoring and controls so that we understand what is happening in these flows, as well as to deal with traffickers. I came across some terrible cases when I met Women's Aid in Northern Ireland recently in terms of women who were trafficked and horrifically abused in the course of the trafficking. Trafficking is a significant driver of migration also, and that does not get captured enough in the debate and the narrative. I appreciate Deputy Devlin's reference to what is a very significant allocation from the shared island fund. It is more than just infrastructure. It is about people and the shared island initiative has put more research into systems North and South, such as health and education, than anything that has been done since the foundation of the State. I also direct that to Deputy Ó Murchú. Under the shared island initiative, there is facilitation for people-to-people supports. The shared home place programme is one potential area, and the Department of foreign affairs, under the shared island initiative, has a community-based funding scheme and programme. We have a dialogue strand which is bringing people together and then we have a research strand. The funding strand deals with research between universities, collaboration on cancer and issues of mutual concern to communities. If the Deputy has particular ideas, please talk to us. The connectivity that is happening now-----
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-----is particularly important. In that respect, I would make the point that in terms of the Narrow Water Bridge project, a lot of people were talking about it for a long time and nothing was done-----
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-----both in the North as well as the South, including members of Deputy Ó Murchú's party, but the point is that this Government has done it and we have put a scheme in place to enable that.
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Deputy Moynihan raised the cross-Border directive. We are going to do more work on that. We have identified that as an area generally under the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF, and also in terms of North-South relationships. We are asking Departments about tax, treatment of workers and so on. Have I picked up the Deputy's issue correctly?
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I am going to get everyone done.
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Anything is possible. In response to Deputy Smith, I want to say that legacy issues remain a very top priority, particularly with a new Prime Minister coming in. The legislation is in the UK and they need to implement it. We will pursue the Monaghan and Dublin bombings, although we are waiting for Operation Denton to perhaps bring more clarity to that. In response to Deputy Ó Murchú, the amount of research that has been done under the shared island initiative is revealing. It is extensive and it is pointing up issues that we are trying to deal with and are dealing with. Where is the Deputy's Green Paper? There is nothing stopping Sinn Féin from producing a Green Paper. It is my view that Sinn Féin-----
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We are working. We are working flat out. I am substance all the way. I am not about slogans.
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I am not saying someone else give me the solution.
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Sorry, the Deputy is always saying that Sinn Féin's view is that "Everybody else must do the Green Paper except ourselves". That is the bottom line.
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In any event-----
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In response to Deputy Boyd Barrett, again, I do not have the specifics on the strike. Industrial relations mechanisms are there to resolve issues between companies and workers and they should be utilised. In response to the Deputy Murphy's comments on the British commentariat, to suggest that Prime Minister Starmer committed genocide, as Deputies Murphy and Coppinger did, is outrageous. He did not commit genocide. I do not know much about the event the Deputy is talking about. We are a democracy in this country. If people are meeting, so long as they are not doing any harm to anybody else-----
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There is a tendency on the far left and on the far right to say that no one else can meet but themselves. I have no truck with these people. I have no interest in whatever is going on there, but-----
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-----citizens of different countries are entitled to come to Ireland. If they get visas, they are entitled to meet and organise. We have a very good democracy here. In the international transparency index, by all measures, we score very highly because of our approach to these issues. That is generally a positive, and we should not try to undermine that either. I disagree with Deputy Coppinger's remarks on former Prime Minister Keir Starmer. I would not have agreed with all his views on Palestine and the Middle East, but I would not make the assertions and allegations that she has in respect of him. In response to Deputy McGreehan's question on research and education, the idea of an innovation partnership with the UK is one that we will next pursue for the next summit. We endeavour to try to bring industry and businesses together more, but the idea of an academic collaboration, which has an enterprise dimension to it around new ideas, products and services, is definitely something we could and will pursue to see if can put flesh and bone on that in preparation for next year's summit. Again, the combination of universities, companies and State agencies, like Enterprise Ireland and InterTradeIreland, with their UK counterparts, is something that is very positive.
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We recently endowed a chair for history in Cambridge university to try to strengthen the academic partnership in the humanities between the UK and Ireland. In response to Deputy Whitmore, I will actually go the Minister and ask him for a timeline. He is committed to plug-in solar. Deputy Heneghan has spoken about this quite a lot as well. The Minister is worried, and he is getting feedback that we have to make sure that domestic capacity exists and we do not unintended consequences like fires at particular houses and so on. He is concerned about that, and it is real concern. I will put it to him that we need a timeline, if he does not have one already. In response to Deputy Heneghan, there is ongoing co-operation between the PSNI and the Garda, but also in terms of abuse North-South, we will work with the Executive on issues of that kind.
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