Francis Noel Duffy (Dublin South West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I can confirm that I am on campus. I am grateful to the witnesses for attending. I understand the complexities of the topic and, therefore, I thank them for their statements and the information presented. It is both insightful and alarming at the same time. Considering the housing crisis and the Housing for All plan, the Government has set in place the provision of legislation and funding to mitigate the housing crisis. However, there are a number of logjams in the system, including labour, to meet our construction projects, but bigger than this is the provision of water and wastewater infrastructure, as we have been discussing.

It is of paramount importance that the first thing to happen is a national audit to realise the capacity issues. I have heard concerns today and on numerous occasions in the Dáil about how wastewater is stalling connections in housing construction all over the country, especially in towns and villages. I can offer an example of a new estate in Dublin where wastewater is stored in an industrial-scale tank and removed by a slurry tanker at least weekly. It is shocking to me, as a practitioner in construction, that this is allowed to happen. It does not seem appropriate in our towns. I question its compliance in a planning context.

The Land Development Agency has, as we all know, maps of State lands to identify development sites for social and affordable housing. Our local authorities also have sites to procure. Have the stakeholders here met with the agency and local authorities to assess the logjams in the water and wastewater systems? If they have, is there a plan in place to allow housing to proceed where there is capacity, and a mitigation plan to open up capacity where required? It was noted earlier that there is a capacity register. Can that be made available to us? I would be interested to see where the capacity is and where the logjams are. If it is possible, I would like to put my questions to all the witnesses, starting with the CCMA. I thank them in advance for their answers.