Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Most of my questions are for Irish Water. I thank our guests for their submissions.

I wish to refer to a few points that were not touched upon, some of which are outside the delegates' control. I will start off with the commercial harmonisation of rates. The CRU has still not published the information, which is disappointing. Irish Water has now been established for six years and we still do not have a harmonisation process in place for commercial rates. We are facing significant differences. The charge in Wicklow is €3.04 per cubic metre and in Kildare it is €1.59, with the largest possible user of water in Kildare being Intel. When will this be sorted out? I acknowledge that, at long last, the CRU did publish the details of the development contribution scheme, as we used to refer to it in the local authorities. The charge is coming in at roughly €6,200 per dwelling unit, on average. I am a bit confused by what I read in this regard. There is the infrastructure investment and there is the connection fee. Is there another fee on top of the €6,200 to get connected? Maybe the delegates could confirm that.

I have always been concerned about the development of infrastructure in rural areas. In my county and a number of my colleagues' counties, most smaller towns and villages have no capacity to develop or take on any development. Is there a plan for this process whereby we can start upgrading the wastewater facilities in rural towns and villages?

It could form part of the solution to the housing crisis. Many of the villages in County Wicklow are stagnating because there has not been a housing development in more than 20 years. It is beginning to affect the schools. In most of the villages with populations of under 1,000, there is no wastewater or water capacity. Is Irish Water focusing on that? Is any specific funding being ring-fenced for smaller, rural-type villages in order that they can develop and be part of the solution? If not, is a process available to allow developers to engage with Irish Water and offer some contribution to the upgrade of existing plants in these areas? If so, does a process have to be followed and is that process available for everyone to view? How is the contribution calculated, or is it done on a case-by-case basis?

On a positive note, I congratulate Irish Water on its work in response to the drought last year. It worked well, although we still need to educate people that even though we started shouting about drought in June, it was September that we should have been worried about. People kept telling me the reservoir was full but I said to return in September when it would not be. While the response was exceptionally good and worked at getting the message out, we could do more to educate people. I acknowledge that the oral hearing in the planning process for the wastewater treatment plant in Arklow has taken place. The plant was discharging raw sewage into the river and I welcome any progress on it.

Dr. Ryan mentioned 179 large towns, of which 28 are polluting. What does the EPA define as a large town? I am trying to get a handle on population growth. I am also interested that we still do not seem to have reached the capital investment that we need in order to fix the water infrastructure problem. The level of State intervention remains at approximately €86 million or €87 million. We were at that figure in 2007 or 2008 and we have only just returned to that level. We have not increased the level of capital funding from the State into water services. Will the Department engage on that?