Mr. Joe McGrath:

I acknowledge the position the committee has taken and the positive approach it has taken in regard to this. The initiative taken by the Department is very positive. Mr. Lonergan has read out what the Department said and it is positive. It states that it is prepared to work with ourselves and Irish Water to try to get a resolution. We need that process to take its course. I have undertaken to contact the Department to convey the desire of the committee to see that process accelerated. I will do that. We will arrange to engage further with the Department. We will update the committee early in the new year on how that is going. It would be useful at this stage to allow that process, which has now started, and the resolution to be found and identified to take its course. We will seek to accelerate that. No doubt the Department is aware of the urgency of this matter before the committee and has conveyed that to us as well. We will undertake to do that.