Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their attendance. I am disappointed that Mr. Brendan Ogle is not here today because he has talked the talk on Facebook and other forms of social media about coming in here and made specific reference to me. After he stood us up on the first day I thought that he might do us a favour and come in today. He seems to have cried off in order to avoid being questioned on his views. Perhaps he was not let out. I do not know.

I have spent the past couple of week in Kildare South dealing with constituents who live in two specific housing estates. I will not name them because I do not want to devalue their houses any more than they have been over what has happened.

The estates in Narraghmore and Newbridge have had raw sewage on their greens for some time. My focus and that of Fine Gael has been trying to fund a mechanism whereby we can address those problems as soon as possible. These are legacy problems with which local authorities have not been able to get to grips. We want to make sure that we have the required funding to fix those problems as soon as possible. The residents of the estates have all told me they would have no problem paying water charges if that meant the fact their children cannot play in open spaces was addressed as quickly as possible.

It is in that context that we come to the decisions that we make here. I passionately believe that has to be our focus. It is crucial that the committee gets this right in terms of the future funding of our water and wastewater services.

If water becomes part of the normal Estimate bidding process, as it was in the past, how do we ensure that the same level of under-investment that has happened is addressed? When water and wastewater services have been in competition with different State Departments, there has been under-investment.

What areas of existing public expenditure would the delegation suggest be de-prioritised if we are to ensure that the money is ring-fenced for water and wastewater services, which, we all agree, is necessary? Would the delegation suggest that the housing, education, transport or perhaps the health sector budgets be cut back? They are the areas that might need to be cut in order to make sure that we have a sufficient amount of water. The general taxation pot is under a lot of pressure from many different sides.