Mr. Michael O'Leary:

The spend on wastewater in 2018 was €230 million and the spend on drinking water was €396 million. Looking forward to 2022, the spend on wastewater will be €511 million and €361 million will be spent on drinking water. That will continue up to 2024, when the spend on wastewater will come back down and the two will merge. We will have to see what the spend will be then from there on. We work very closely with the Department and with our colleagues in the EPA to determine where to target and prioritise spend.

To look at some of the locations, out of the total of 179, by 2021 works will be completed at 21 of the 28 large agglomerations to which I referred. The remaining six will be addressed by 2024. To look at the 57 locations identified in the EPA report as impacting on water quality, we have completed upgrade works in 36 of these locations and are carrying out assessments at the others. That will also be completed by 2024. Mr. Gallen has alluded to the untreated agglomerations which started out as the "dirty 44". It is now the "dirty 50" but we have removed 44% of the raw sewage being discharged. The EPA and ourselves know what the priorities are. We work very closely with the EPA. We acknowledge that the speed heretofore may not have been what was required but there were reasons for that. The pendulum is certainly now swinging towards the wastewater side. We should see an acceleration of compliance in that regard.

To briefly touch on the issues of the single public utility and the WRC, I am conscious that we are getting into talks with the WRC very shortly. I do not want to get into too much detail but, from an Irish Water perspective, we are publicly owned and primarily an insourced business. Commercial considerations are important to us. We are regulated. We want to be commercial and we want to be regulated. Being commercial goes beyond the boundaries of where funding comes from. It has other benefits relating to the types of contract into which we can enter and so on. Certainly, from an Irish Water perspective, we very much want to continue to be publicly owned, commercial and regulated.