FINE GAEL has warned of a crisis over water quality and supplies in agriculture and industry in a new policy paper prepared by the party’s environment spokesman Phil Hogan.
“There is no single solution. There needs to be an integrated approach that engages land- owners, farmers, environmental agencies, planners and policy makers,” Mr Hogan said.
“We need to anticipate the 2015 EU water framework directive deadline to achieve good status for all our water supplies and sources. Ireland should view it as an opportunity to be grasped instead of a burden to be avoided.”
There should be a five-year plan to repair or replace all private septic tanks to bring them into conformity with the water framework directive. “This will help improve our ground water conditions,” said Mr Hogan.
He added: “The septic tank for one-off housing in rural areas is the single greatest obstacle to reaching targets for ground and surface water quality in Ireland.”
He said municipal waste water treatment works that were old or insufficient in scale were contributing “a massive proportion of pollution in Irish lakes and rivers”.
He added: “The local authorities are unable to get proper funding from the Department of the Environment, so the 21 plants should be put out to international tender as a single bundle of projects with a view to completing the work within five years and reducing our potential for fines with the EU Commission because of the pollution currently being caused by local authorities.”
In its other recent policy document, Rebuilding Ireland, Fine Gael proposed the establishment of a new State company, Irish Water, to take overall responsibility for providing safe, clean drinking water, and the treatment of waste water through an expanded water infrastructure investment programme.
Pointing out that, after municipal discharges, agriculture gave rise to the next biggest quantity of water pollution in Ireland, Mr Hogan said: “This issue has to be addressed urgently but also realistically.”
Among the options Fine Gael would examine were the use of the water framework directive to incentivise farmers to improve water targets. It also wants to address slurry and nutrient applications and practices through investment in farming “champions”, and increase awareness of viable alternative methods.
The party also wants to incentivise best practice by restoring the fallen animal scheme and rural environment protection scheme payments that were reduced in last week’s Budget.
