Ms Mary Gurrie:

There is enforcement. The EPA undertakes inspections and auditing of wastewater facilities. Some of these relate to operational matters and then follow-up in achieving the outcome. A compliance investigation can be opened and further enforcement or directions issued about what Irish Water needs to do.

The longer term challenge is that our wastewater infrastructure needs a long period of substantial and sustained investment. The EPA has repeatedly called it out that our wastewater infrastructure, as a country, is not where it should be. We do take action. We have our priority action list and our focus is on investment being prioritised into those areas to protect them, deal with raw sewage, comply with the wastewater treatment directive, protect water quality and really try to push to have those plants prioritised and upgraded as quickly as possible, so their impact on the environment is reduced. We have prosecuted Irish Water on several occasions for not delivering on the timeframes it committed to.