Dr. Róisín Nash:

In case there is any misunderstanding regarding Irish Water and universities, this was the first research project with which it engaged. That probably explains in part the length of time involved. It was not unique to GMIT. When Irish Water put together what it would sign off on and what would be allowed, it could not just refer to GMIT. All the colleges had to go through their legal departments. It was unfortunate that ours was a three-year project and we are only now getting into that towards the end. The matter is multifaceted.

As Dr. Anne Marie Mahon mentioned, we will be looking at taking Teagasc on board when we are doing more on our study. At present we are trying to answer research questions and then we will test them in the field. It would be brilliant to bring Teagasc on board and look at where it is sampling and not replicate it to see whether we could add more information to it.

On the role of local authorities and the industry, in all of our research projects we have an outreach element and try to involve the local authorities and the industry in any workshop or any information we produce and obtain information from them. We would like to open a two-way dialogue.

As regards the funding Senator Boyhan mentioned, we have not had a research question that would tie in with the questions Teagasc also needs to answer. However, I believe this will happen down the line and that there will be more interaction with the industry.

We need to answer the questions the Senator has put to us before we ask industry to come on board and answer more questions.