Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Following on from Deputy Whitmore on river quality, I note the Minister has allocated €33.3 million in programme D, which is very welcome. Will the Minister outline the Department's involvement and the co-operation it has with Irish Water, the EPA, many local authorities and Waterways Ireland, for example? One of the big issues in urban areas relates to misconnections into the local rivers and there is also the grey run-off water matter from roads and so on because some of the older roads and gulleys still empty into local rivers. While river water quality has improved over the years, there remains a serious risk to biodiversity in and around the rivers. Will the Minister comment on future programmes of his Department designed to tackle grey run-off water waste from roads, factories and so on, and those misconnections? What is in the pipeline - excuse the pun - for the Department working with all the agencies I mentioned?