Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

My other question is on the planning framework from an environmental point of view for County Limerick. From the details the Department has at the moment, it probably has a footprint map of Ireland as a whole. It can see the weak areas that do not have infrastructure and that are being taken out of the local area plans because of lack of infrastructure for forward planning.

In counties like Limerick, we are looking at it from the point of view that many areas do not have a proper adequate sewerage system. A recent report showed that the biggest polluters in County Limerick are the local authorities from the amount of sewerage that is going into the rivers. It is also stopping the planning and framework for rebuilding the likes of County Limerick in its entirety, however. It is only going to areas now where local area plans show towns and villages - mainly towns - that have sewerage capacity, which takes out two thirds of County Limerick from the point of view of infrastructure. It puts the rest of the county at a disadvantage when encouraging business into an area and bringing people home, having housing within an area and making it sustainable for sports, local businesses and local shops. These areas are at a disadvantage. In all the records it holds at the moment, does the Department have a detailed plan that shows the weak and strong areas within Ireland that need to be invested in and that could be put forward to the Government to show what the future could hold for Ireland if proper infrastructure was put in place?