'Clew Bay cannot wait while agency shuffles paper' - Mayo TD
There comes a time when public patience is not merely tested but stretched to the point of ridicule - Newport has now been forced to endure the latter.
That's according to Mayo TD Paul Lawless.
He elaborated: "Once again, I have raised in the Dáil the disgraceful state of affairs in Clew Bay, where raw sewage from Newport is being collected in containers only to be swept out along the shoreline with every high tide.
"It is an environmental insult, a public-health hazard, and a civic embarrassment aimed at the beautiful village of Newport— and it has gone on for far, far too long.
"Everyone — from environmental experts to local residents agrees that the wastewater treatment plant for Newport is not a luxury but an absolute necessity.
"Yet this essential project has languished in planning purgatory for decades.
"The fault lies not with the people of Newport, nor with those desperately trying to protect the bay, but squarely with a system that now appears engineered for delay rather than delivery.
"In my exchange with the Taoiseach, I placed an unforgiving spotlight on the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority (MARA). Their statutory timelines are not being met.
"Their engagement has been lethargic at best and non-existent at worst.
"In truth, the relationship between MARA and Uisce Éireann has devolved into what I described — accurately — as a ‘letter-writing club’: polite correspondence drifting back and forth while, ironically, the sewage itself seems to be the only thing capable of reaching the bay on time.
"This is not regulation; it is stagnation.
"I called on the Taoiseach to intervene directly, to stop the buck-passing and insist that the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority (MARA) and Uisce Éireann act with urgency.
"The Taoiseach replied that he would seek a response from Irish Water. Fine — but responses are not progress. The people of Newport deserve more than reassurances; they deserve results.
"Let me be unequivocal: MARA must now meet — urgently — with me, the Newport Sewage Concern Group, and the other Mayo TDs.
"Newport has waited decades, and its patience has been saintly. MARA’s performance, by comparison, has been anything but. Regulatory bodies should be facilitators of progress, not custodians of delay.
"The community has shown remarkable unity and resolve throughout this ordeal.
"I want to assure the Newport Sewage Concern Group and the wider public that I will continue applying every ounce of parliamentary pressure available. A video update and further public statements will follow imminently.
"Clew Bay is a national treasure; Newport is a warm, friendly, tourist hotspot. Neither deserves to be treated as collateral damage in bureaucratic foot-dragging.
"MARA must step up, show up, and get this done while the government parties need to stop acting as spectators.