Ken O'Flynn
Cork North-Central · Independent Ireland · Ireland
“The Government has not addressed school uniform problems or the fact that most parents have to pay €300 for a PE kit. It has not addressed the problem that parents have to give this voluntary contribution, which is really not voluntary when schools are putting out news bulletins listing the names of families who have contributed and those…”
“Every one of us knows from our own constituencies that laptops, iPads and tablets are being used regularly by order of boards of management. I have to acknowledge the Government's good work and call it out, including the free books scheme and the school meals. However, the Government has made a hames of the school meals.”
“Like many of the stories the Minister of State has heard today in the House, it is not strange that we have constituents coming to us regularly saying the biggest fear they have is the postman's knock.”
“We should all be inside here hanging our heads in shame about how we are treating people. Just go outside the gate and the Minister of State will see Cara Darmody outside Leinster House again, highlighting a law that the Government has been breaking for over 20 years. What was the Taoiseach's answer to me yesterday?”
“I am sure the Taoiseach will join me in welcoming Christy Hussey and Conor Burke to the Public Gallery. Since this morning, a 15-year-old child has been sitting in protest outside the gates of Leinster House. Cara Darmody is highlighting the fact that the State breaking its own law.”
“It is reported that half of the women murdered in the Kingdom of Spain this year were killed by foreign nationals. Across the Continent, governments have opened their doors and lost control of their borders. When their own citizens stand up and take notice, these governments lecture them and call them far-right for calling them out.”
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“Our economy is too fragile and unbalanced and this Government has tried for years but has done nothing to fix it. What has it done? We are still over-reliant on foreign investment. Indigenous businesses are under pressure, over-regulated, over-red-taped and overtaxed. Energy prices are crushing our competitiveness at home whether the Government likes it or not. Infrastructure, such as housing and transport, is light years behind where it needs to be. What we need right now is to wake up diplomatically. The Taoiseach and the Tánaiste must stop hiding behind the grandiose statements of the European Union. We must be direct and forceful and use our contacts in Brussels and in Washington and we must use whatever influence we have left, and actually use it this time. We must protect our local businesses, our SMEs and our exporters.”
“Tariffs just will not dent the profits of companies, they will close companies and small businesses. They will gut the tax base which we rely on to fund our hospitals, schools and public services. This should have been front and centre of the Government policy for the past 12 months. Instead, we had two Ministers for Foreign Affairs in the past 12 months who have proven themselves - let us be blunt in this House - utterly ineffective on the global stage. This particular moment demands a strategic diplomat and a doer. Instead we have a TikToker press releasing machine posing and spinning but never delivering. Now we are playing catch up. Let us be clear. The issue is not just across the Atlantic. The cracks are here at home. In fact, there are some chasms here at home.”
“I thank the Acting Chair. It is time we stopped pretending that we were caught by surprise with these tariffs. Over the past year, it has been crystal clear that Donald Trump was on fast track to the White House and with him the threat of escalating trade tensions, protectionism and tariffs which could hit Ireland right between the eyes. What was this Government response? It was nothing - no planning, no urgency and a serious lack of leadership. It is the same sluggish, slow sloth-like reaction that we have seen time and again from this Government, hoping that the storm will pass rather than securing the roof. The reality is that Ireland is dangerously exposed. Our economy is built on export. Our ties with the United States are deep and our industries from pharma to tech, to dairy to cosmetics, are directly in the firing line.”
“The matters raised by Deputies James Geoghegan, James O'Connor, Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin, Danny Healy-Rae and John Clendennen have been selected for discussion.”
“Deputy Louis O'Hara - To discuss adequate SNA support for schools such as Lisheenkyle National School in County Galway. Deputy James O'Connor - To discuss the rapid development of major solar farms on high-quality agricultural lands in Cork. Deputy Louise O'Reilly - To discuss the provision of primary care services for Fingal West. Deputy Pat Buckley - To discuss the recent changes to the tenant in situ scheme. Deputy Catherine Callaghan - To discuss delivery of increased water and wastewater capacity. Deputy James Geoghegan - To discuss the extension of the Luas to Poolbeg. Deputy Ruth Coppinger - To discuss the HIQA report on governance at Children's Health Ireland in the use of implantable medical devices. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae - To discuss pension abatement for retired nurses who returned to work during Covid.”
“Deputy Barry Ward - To discuss the ban on the use of mid-urethral mesh slings in treatment for urinary incontinence in women. Deputy Donna McGettigan - To discuss the ambulance service in County Clare. Deputy Aidan Farrelly - To discuss new mechanisms for the creation of football academies with the FAI and the League of Ireland. Deputy Mattie McGrath - To discuss the huge delays in Uisce Éireann connections and the knock-on effect on housing developments. Deputy Michael Murphy - To discuss local government reform. Deputy Naoise Ó Muirí - To discuss the need for BusConnects routes to adequately support north Dublin commuters travelling to destinations south of the Liffey. Deputy Colm Burke - To discuss the inclusion of the shingles vaccine in the national immunisation programme, the drug payment scheme and the medical card scheme.”
“Deputy Roderic O'Gorman - To discuss provision of modular accommodation for Danu Community Special School. Deputy Paul Lawless - To discuss the wastewater treatment plant in Newport, County Mayo. Deputy Marie Sherlock - To discuss the exclusion of mainstream classes in Holy Child Preschool on Seán MacDermott Street, Dublin 1, from special educational needs support. Deputy Malcolm Byrne - To discuss the introduction of a youth culture card. Deputy Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin - To discuss extra special need places in schools and utilising schools that may be closing. Deputy Brian Brennan - To discuss enforcement of measures and incentives to combat widespread dereliction across the country. Deputy David Cullinane - To discuss the urgent funding requirements for the Waterford Airport extension.”
“I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 39 and the name of the Member in each case: Deputy Michael Cahill - To discuss the urgent need for additional childcare services in Kerry. Deputy Séamus McGrath - To discuss driver licence reciprocal arrangements. Deputy Gary Gannon - To discuss accommodation options for young people leaving care in Dublin Central. Deputy John Clendennen - To discuss insurance reform and the proposed 16.7% increase to personal injury claims. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan - To seek an update on the Before 5 funding application. Deputy Eoghan Kenny - To discuss proposed leaving certificate reforms. Deputy John Brady - To discuss the N11-M11 bus priority interim scheme.”
“I am sick to death of going to community meetings and hearing "It is not my Johnny" or "It is not my Mary" and looking at photographs of them. I had a mother tell me, "I only dropped them to the cemetery because they were only having a couple of cans". That is antisocial behaviour. That is giving a child alcohol. That is unacceptable. We need to have the powers in this State for the Garda to prosecute parents who are indulging their children in antisocial behaviour and activity.”
“They are getting a couple of bags of sweets or a can of Coke after as their reward for threatening Mary and telling her they are going to burn out her car. This is what is going on in parts of this country. It is happening not just in Cork but also in Mayo, Dublin and everywhere. It is about time we stopped wringing our hands in here. There are Members of this House on the left side who almost have an idea of hug a thug and everything will be alright, and we will give them an antisocial behaviour order, ASBO, and it is all because "God, they came from a tough background". We have to make parents responsible as well, and there has to be a financial repercussion for parents whose children are involved in criminal activity and cause criminal damages.”
“The amount of company regulation and paperwork it is necessary to go through is extremely cumbersome for many organisations. We talk in this House about getting people involved in sports, dramas, new types of clubs and new types of energy, and occupying them. Looking at the Icelandic model, which brought down antisocial behaviour from about 40% to approximately 3%, it was about engagement. It is about taking away boredom and giving people opportunities to do something after hours after school. My colleague, Deputy Paul Lawless, mentioned the drug epidemic. It has not escaped Cork either. We have a situation in Cork where children as young as eight are being used as drug mules. Children as young as eight are knocking on doors and threatening people because they cannot be prosecuted.”
“This is an important matter to speak on. One of the marvellous things about our jobs as elected Members of this House is that we engage with the community on so many different levels and we see such fantastic young people and organisations giving back to society. They are led by many community leaders. Some of them have gone on to become members of their local councils and Members of this House too. Many come from community backgrounds, a bit like Deputy Collins I think. He started off with perhaps about 30 organisations and this grew to approximately 120 organisations by the time he entered this House. I refer to giving back to communities. We see some tremendous people out there. We also see, however, that an awful lot of work now goes into setting up youth organisations, from drama to any sports.”
“Is the €250,000 ring-fenced for it and when can we expect the Before 5 Family Centre, which was 50 years in the community, to be reopened?”
“In August 2023, the Before 5 Family Centre in Churchfield closed its doors, discommoding over 100 families who were left scrambling to find alternative places for their children. At that time, there was a commitment given by the previous Government that it would try to resource and fund this. Prior to the general election, as I am sure the Taoiseach knows, it was announced that funding of up to €250,000 would be made available for the centre through Northside Community Enterprises, in tandem with the Diocese of Cork and Ross. It was very much announced in the local press and it appeared on Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael newsletters and propaganda prior to the election, but to date, there has not been a shovel put in the ground. The gates remain closed. No builder has been appointed. Nobody has been appointed, actually. Are we still on target?”
“I am surprised when I look at the empty benches and all these people screaming for speaking time. No Government TDs wanted to speak on this issue.”
“That is not being adequately housed at 35 years of age. We also have a generation of people who lost their houses in 2007 and 2008. They are now back working after losing their businesses and their properties. They are paying €1,500, €1,800 or €2,200 on rent for apartments. What will happen when those people reach 66 years of age with no access to finance, no possibility of getting a loan and no possibility of redeeming their credit ratings? They will be back on social housing lists. A gentleman rang me yesterday to say that the house he was involved with had fallen through. He is now 69 years of age and has been told by the local authority to come back in two or three years and it may be able to help him. The programme is not working and the Minister must fix this.”
“My apartment is presently going up for sale and I have to vacate by April 13th 2025. I have literally nowhere to go. Can you please help me? These are the messages that are coming into my office. As one of my colleagues said, this affected 21 of the 27 constituents he met on Monday. That is the reality of life for people. At 27, I was able to purchase my own home. I now meet people aged 40 or 45 living in box rooms. Even though they are earning significant salaries, they are not able to purchase their own homes and are stuck in their parents' houses. I meet people every day of the week who tell me they cannot get on the social housing list because Cork City Council, Cork County Council or Limerick City and County Council have told them they are adequately housed because they are living with their grandparents.”
“I thank colleagues on the Independent benches for tabling this motion. The Minister probably knows that the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. However, the definition of madness has to be this programme for Government and this Housing for All scheme that the Minister has his faith in. Today, 15,378 people are homeless and 4,653 of those are children. I am ashamed to be standing here. I am sickened that we have our own children on the streets. I suspect those figures are not correct and are much higher than we believe. I will share with the Minister a text I received this morning that is just a typical text that comes in every day to our offices. My name is [I will leave out the name]. I'm resident here Mallow, a RAS house tenant for 20 years.”
“He needs to change the ideology and make the Department more helpful to people and better versed in supporting people and being fair to them. It should not pull up the drawbridge on people. People come to the Department of social welfare when they need help. While this is a very good Bill and I appreciate it being brought before the House, it should not have happened in this manner. We should never have had to wait for the Supreme Court to tell us what is the right thing to do. What the Government, the Minister and his Department need to do is stop looking good and start acting good.”
“There are 300,000 childless couples in this country who want to pass on their homes or their funds to nieces or nephews or the stranger down the street who spent their life looking after and helping them. The latter is treated as category C, while a nephew or niece is category B, meaning they have an exemption of €40,000 but are taxed on everything else. There is a huge injustice here. Ken O'Flynn can leave his money to the dog's home and that charity is not taxed. It has an exemption so a cocker spaniel has more rights than a childless or homosexual couple who want to leave money to their nieces or nephews or to somebody else. That is wrong and has to be addressed. I ask the Minister to change the thinking in his Department.”
“In some cases I am talking about a person that someone spends his or her life with, cohabiting with. In other situations, people live in their own houses but they have a real relationship. They may not be cohabiting but they have a real, genuine relationship, sometimes for years. She lives in her house and he lives in his house, or he and he and she and she, depending on the dynamic. That is all very well but those people are not being taken into account. In fact, I had one case in Cork recently of a lady who inherited her long-term partner's house but was deemed to be in category C, meaning she qualified for a €25,000 tax exemption. Bear in mind that we are addressing issues of injustice here.”
“How sad that the Department is fighting and arguing with people when there is clear and obvious evidence, including a certificate from the Catholic Church, signed by a priest who has since passed away. That is just one example of what is going on in this State and how some people in the Minister's Department are operating. It is not acceptable. People go to the Department of social welfare when they are in trouble, need help and are down on their luck. That is when people go to the Department of social welfare and they should not be given another kick in the teeth. We have to change that sort of mandate or idea within the Department. I will speak now of another situation of which I am aware that relates to inheritance tax. These things are all linked together.”
“Unfortunately, the priest on the day, who was meant to register the marriage, did not do so properly. I will send the details on to the Minister. She has been fighting for several years.. She lost her husband three or four years ago. She has two children, aged 16 and 14 and has been fighting continuously, back and forth between various sections of the Department of social welfare because they cannot find a proper marriage licence or certificate. She has supplied photographic evidence and absolutely every other possible piece of evidence to officials in the Department but she has still not received a payment. She rang me the other day and asked if she would qualify for a payment under this new Bill that is going through the House. How sad is that?”
“It was dragged out by officials in what is now the Minister's Department. That is regrettable because what we should be doing is looking for the injustices in society and righting them. We should be having success in the House rather than being dictated to. We should not drag a man and his family, or any person in this State, through the courts on technicalities, over and over again, all the way to the Supreme Court. This is a great Bill, which I support but how it got to the floor of the House is regrettable. The injustice has to be redressed. There are other issues that are not being addressed when it comes to people inheriting. I want to tell the Minister a story about a constituent of mine whose cause I am still fighting for, three years on. She was married in a church back in the 1980s.”
“I do not think I have had the opportunity to congratulate the Minister in the House so I will start by doing so and wishing him well in his new role. I wish him great success. I am sure he will make a success of it because I know him to be an honest and decent character. Is there a doctor in the House? I feel a bit faint because I found myself agreeing with Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett and I may need my pulse taken. Some valid points were made by Deputy Boyd Barrett today, especially in the context of just 100 people and I ask the Minister to look at that. Today we are talking about fairness and redressing an imbalance and injustice in the context of the John O'Meara case. It is unfortunate that we are here today and that we have to reflect on the John O'Meara case and the fact that it went all the way to the Supreme Court.”
“Will the Minister and his Government now admit that Irish Water is a faceless organisation that is not customer-driven? Will they look at and explore the possibility of returning water services to the local authorities, such as Cork County Council and Cork City Council?”
“I wish to bring to the Minister's attention a serious matter which recently impacted my constituents in Cork North-Central, in the areas of Ballyvolane and Dublin Hill. It is an area that was left five days without water, from Friday to Tuesday morning last. Despite continuously contacting Irish Water, constituents were given reference number after reference number, and Irish Water had no record of it by Monday morning. It was not submitted, from what we can ascertain, to the repair unit, and people were left without water. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. It is a regular occurrence in Cork city that people are being left without water or they are facing brown, dirty, filthy water that is not drinkable or usable.”
“I am generally fond of the Minister and I think she is a good Minister but the disparity that was introduced by the previous Government and that is being continued by this one is not acceptable. We have to means test people. It is only right that everybody is treated equally. If everyone is treated equally, that means that everybody should be means tested.”
“What about the Ukrainians who came here but not from Ukraine? Nobody is asking the hard questions that we ask ordinary Irish citizens and everybody else. If someone comes from a war-torn area of Ukraine, of course, we need to help them. That is our job as human beings. However, if someone has come from Italy, say, having lived there for a number of years and is now availing of the schemes in Ireland, that is completely wrong. Nobody is asking those questions. They are simple questions that we would expect everybody to answer. It is great to see that we €800 available for the ARP, but where is the €800 for the 15,000 Irish people, including 4,000 children who are homeless and on the streets tonight? We have to be fair. The disparity is being brought about by the Government.”
“I have been listening to the debate and it is regrettable that we only have an hour for it, because it is a very important issue. We all admit that there is a crisis in Ukraine and a huge crisis at home. I am reminded of the words of George Orwell in Animal Farm , published in 1945, that "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others." The means test has to be introduced. Last week, in this House, the Tánaiste admonished me - I think he thought he was in the Chair - for one simple question I asked. Now we have a situation where I am asking another question. The Tánaiste said on record in this House that most Ukrainians are working and contributing to society and that all the Ukrainians he knows are working. If that is the case, why are we delivering free money? Why are we not means testing?”
“I am not aware of any other government in the world that is repairing people's cars, putting new tyres on them and putting engines in their cars. Can we have some clarification on this?”
“Will the Tánaiste confirm whether the reported payments to Ukrainian refugees for vehicle repairs, including sums ranging from €400 to €7,000, are being sourced from the exceptional needs payments of the Department of Social Welfare or is this coming from the humanitarian funding, similar to the humanitarian funding of €1 million per month for cats and dogs from Ukraine that previous Governments found? Does the Tánaiste believe that this expenditure is good value for money, especially in light of challenges to Irish citizens? Will he clarify whether those payments are also available to IPAS refugees? We know that 800,000 Irish citizens have left these shores since 2008 to live in countries such as Australia and Canada.”
“We are telling him what is working and what is not working but he is not listening, nor does he have any interest in being in this House listening to what is being said tonight or in listening to his own TDs. It is a disgrace; a joke.”
“They are not capable of realising that something works. It is something that is good. Indeed, it is one of the few things that is good coming out of the housing Department. It is one of the few things that is good and the response is to get rid of that too. We might as well be a complete failure. Absolute complete failure seems to be the rhetoric of this Government. It is simply not good enough. The Ministers are not listening to their own elected representatives. Have they heard the people on their backbenches talking? Have they listened to them or have they been concentrating on their phones for most of the debate? Will the Minister listen to what those in his own party are saying, what backbenchers are saying and what they are telling us in the corridors? We are all telling the Minister the truth.”
“I want to make the Minister aware of one particular couple who lost their house in 2008, through no fault of their own. They lost their house because of the mismanagement of the Fianna Fáil Administration at the time. They are now renting accommodation but were recently told they will have to vacate their property or else come to a tenant in situ arrangement. Cork City Council cannot engage because it does not know what is happening in the Department. Nobody is making a decision. A cheque has not been signed since October. We are looking at a situation where civil servants do not particularly like this scheme and they are influencing the Minister. It really is a case of Sir Humphrey in the Department and a bumbling Minister or Minister of State who is not capable of making a decision.”
“-----from Goleen all the way up, so there is no need to panic or worry. I jest. I know what a good worker the Minister of State is. I praise the Sinn Féin organisation for tabling this motion. The tenant in situ scheme has been a great success but the changes the Government is proposing mean it is snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. It is working very well, but since last October we have had no movement on tenants in situ in Cork city. This is affecting 40 families. Why do people want to be in the tenant in situ scheme? It is very simple. Their children are based in the community, they have sports clubs and all the necessities and supports around them. They are expected to vacate their house when their landlord is selling it. It is a case of "Off you go, abscond to somewhere else or go into homeless services".”
“I congratulate Deputy O'Sullivan on his position as Minister of State. I am delighted to see a Cork man elevated. I know he has been working very hard in his constituency but he does not need to worry because Deputy Collins has taken on extra staff because the Minister of State is not in the constituency anymore. He will be looking after all the necessary needs-----”
“As has been mentioned by a previous speaker, though, it costs €350,000 to almost €400,000 for an affordable house. That is what we are delivering. Is the Minister listening? That is not affordable for anybody. There is no such thing as an affordable house in this country.”
“We are zoning lands. Instead of rezoning, we have the tail wagging the dog with Irish Water telling us where we can and cannot build, where we can put planning permission and what we can zone. We have too many infrastructure people and too many people in utility supplies, NTA and the rest of it, dictating to local authorities where they can build properties. The Minister knows as well as I do that Irish Water and other utility companies are not a bit interested in facilitating housing or facilitating the State, including local authorities. I congratulate Cork County Council, which has led the way when it comes to affordable housing and has delivered far more affordable housing under the stewardship of Ms Valerie O'Sullivan, the CE, and Mr. Brian Geaney, the deputy CE, who have done tremendous work.”
“Independent Ireland's TDs and councillors have people coming to our constituency offices and asking us not to get them on the housing list or make a representation to the council, but to get them auctioneers who will listen to them so they can rent a house privately. They have €2,500 to spend and they cannot find accommodation. That is a housing emergency. We talk about supply and demand. If this Government and its predecessor had listened to Michael O'Flynn - one of the biggest property developers in the country - when he said five years ago that we should start rezoning land and lower the price of the site to 10%, as it was in the eighties when my mother and father, at the age of 18 and 21, could go off and purchase a house because the site price was 10%. Now we are looking at an average of 40% to 50% for the site price alone.”
“I congratulate the Minister on his position and wish him the best of luck. I genuinely mean that. Today, we had the Taoiseach on his feet telling us that the Government's biggest commitment was to housing, and that the biggest commitment of his party and the other parties that are in government, including the Independents, was to housing, yet where are they? It is an empty Chamber. Where is the Government that is meant to be listening to us? We are looking at a 10% increase in homelessness in the past year, with 15,000 people in emergency accommodation, and 4,500 of those are children. This is not a housing crisis, but a housing emergency, and it is about time that this Government recognised that and declared it. We are looking at increases in property prices at 8.1% at the moment.”
“I thank the Minister but, as I pointed out, emergency care is available but is not available all the time. What does a parent do when their child is suffering? Parents have to find the money somewhere and they will beg, borrow and steal to protect or save their children. In my constituency of Cork North-Central many people have come to me and said they had to borrow money from friends or family because they had no access to dental care for a child over the weekend due to an accident. That is €2,000 or €3,000. It is simply not good enough.”
“Some day. Could we not start looking at a programme where medical cards are accepted in the same way as when a person goes to the GP and the dentist would be paid in the same way GPs are paid, so everyone is covered and there would be buy-in from everybody? The other reality is that there are situations in Cork city where if a young child falls off their bike and breaks their teeth, they have no access to the dental clinic on the weekend and therefore it is either accident and emergency or the mercy of a dentist who might accept a medical card. The reality is that a lot of them do not so children are without teeth or parents are faced with bills of €4,000 or €5,000 to replace them.”
“I appreciate the Minister's response and I understand the response but the DTSS programme just is not working. For instance, the working-class town of Mallow that I come from, which has 13,450 adults living there, has no medical card provided dentist practice. Nobody is accepting a medical card in Mallow. You must travel to Cork city or to Charleville, to Limerick or down to Kerry. Many practices have given up because the system is not working. Would the Minister agree that what we need to be doing now as a Government, or what the Minister needs to be doing as part of the Government - I am not in the Government yet-----”
“I ask the Minister to clarify if there is a mandatory requirement for dental practices to accept patients with medical cards for treatment. What measures are in place to ensure access to dental care for medical card holders? What are the current procedures for emergency dental treatment for children under the age of 16 when dental clinics, such as the dental clinic in Cork city, are closed at weekends? What plans does she have to improve accessibility to urgent dental care for patients under the age of 16?”
“Consider trying to bathe a child in this water. What the Taoiseach is saying today might sound good but no action is being taken. My constituents - fellow Corkonians - are suffering.”
“It is all very well what the Taoiseach has said and the commitment he has given. I am asking for a commitment in respect of the €500 million Irish Water has asked for to start developing the system. The Taoiseach will be aware of the news today that 33 samples of manganese have been found in water in Cork city. Manganese is at an unacceptable level there. I have just poured into the glass in front of me a sample of water from Cork city. This is what it looks like. That is what is coming out of the taps on the northside of the city. It is unacceptable to say the Government will try to do something to make it better. I challenge the Taoiseach or any other Member of this House to drink this water. I will not drink it. There are elderly people around Cork city who cannot see and do not know what is coming out of their tap.”
“These are patients who attend CUH on a regular basis. It is an absolute scandal. We have asked continuously about the funding but there is no mention of it in the programme for Government. Where is the €500 million that needs to be secured for the northside? I say respectfully to the Taoiseach that I wonder whether this would be acceptable if it were happening in Turners Cross in his constituency. What is not good enough for the southside certainly should not be good enough for the northside. Yet again, we are being let down by him and his Government.”
“There are communities going three or four days without water, with householders unable to run a tap, take a shower, bathe a child or wash bedding. That is unacceptable. It is something we would see in an advertisement for an African charity asking for money to build a well. That is the way the people of the northside are being treated. There are people with pubs and other businesses that are reliant on the mains supply for their ice machines, dishwashers and steam ovens. They do not want know whether they can open their business on a given day because the water supply is not secure. The problem has now moved into a little bit of the southside of Cork city. The dermatology department in Cork University Hospital, CUH, is no longer providing baths for patients because the state of the water cannot be guaranteed.”
“People are waking up on the northside of the city not knowing whether they can bathe their children, wash their hands, have a shower or put on a wash and leave. There are elderly and disadvantaged people in this community who are heavily reliant on others to know whether their tap water is brown or is running clear. Nobody is concerned to address this issue four years after it was originally highlighted. Irish Water has come out with a statement that €500 million needs to be secured for Cork City Council. Working on the basis that the €500 million is provided, it would take 90 years, at the rate the work is being done, to replace the Victorian pipeline in Cork city. What Irish Water has done for the northside of the city is introduce two trunking systems that are continuously pumping out water.”