Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. On the issue of sewerage treatment capacity, wastewater capacity and freshwater capacity, it is a great frustration for many people. We have discussed this ourselves and we are doing a couple of things right now. I have asked Irish Water to work with local authorities in resetting priorities of delivery under the capital plan. We need money to do that, which is why I mentioned at the start about €1.3 billion being provided for Irish Water in 2021. About €105 million of that is provided to support water programmes delivered by the Department, including the rural water programme. As part of the national development plan, NDP, review, to which the Department and I have made a submission, we need to be inventive about how we assist in moving projects along that have been there for quite some time. We need to do this if we believe in balanced regional development, which I do absolutely. There are few positives of Covid, but one is that many people have been able to go back to their original homes, working online and remotely. If we follow an approach of town and village centre first, which we are, we need to make sure those towns and villages have the basic capacity to provide for additional population coming into the area.

We did the developer-led, older infrastructure scheme recently. We brought about 2,000 homes back into the mains network. We have a lot more to do there. The capital plan for Irish Water is being worked through with them. I am in regular contact with them. More needs to be done, particularly in a regional sense.

I am confident we will be able to make strides in this, particularly under the NDP. I have a particular proposal in there, on which I cannot go into detail yet. Once I have it, I am looking at what we can do in towns and villages that do not have any Irish Water infrastructure. I refer to places with older historical council schemes and what we can do to build capacity in those areas. Fundamentally, my earnest belief is we need a publicly owned single water utility that people will be proud of to deliver an efficient and effective service for all our citizens. That is where the White Paper I published a number of weeks ago on the future of Irish Water and water and waste water provision is important. I have had very good engagement with unions, with Irish Water and with the County and City Management Association, CCMA. The next step is for them, hopefully, to go back into discussions with the WRC. We want to make sure we have a sustainable water system into the future. I have made sure water is not the poor relation in this Department. It is crucial if we are to deliver the additional homes we need for our people and if we are to balance our regional development.

The Government recently announced €1.3 billion in urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, funding. Limerick was a significant beneficiary of that. It is to make sure that our regions are invested in and that people live, work and bring additional foreign direct and domestic private investment into those areas. It is an exciting time for our regions but we need to make sure it is backed up with the required infrastructure. I will continue to engage with the Deputy on this issue. The NDP is a chance to do more and I want to see the capital plan expedited, like the older schemes the Deputy mentioned that have been on the books for 20 or 30 years. We need to start moving and getting them done.