Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We may be talking about abstraction but water is not an abstract topic in the city of Dublin where the water supply has reached a critical level. The Bill is a very necessary instrument that will allow us to secure supply for the city.

A regulatory regime has been outlined in the legislation and I am interested in hearing the Department’s view on how quickly the regime can be put together. Although it also deals with the European Union’s directives, one of the principal bases for this is increasing supply to the eastern seaboard, particularly to the capital city.

What sort of consultation has been done with the developer of the project, given that they are most likely to be the first large scale project to use the legislative base?