Mr. Fintan Towey:

The report was undertaken as an internal exercise with a view to inform policy and, indeed, it formed the basis of the scheme I have been talking about that the Minister announced last year, under which he invited applications in relation to unsewered towns and villages. The review and report were undertaken in consultation and conjunction with local authorities. It identified 547 villages and settlements that did not have public sewerage facilities. The criteria that applied in looking at unsewered towns and villages was to identify if there were environmental or health issues arising from the lack of such facilities. Language was not a criterion that featured in the process of the review.

The review fed into the Minister’s consideration. It is not a published document and therefore it is not publicly available. I am not sure whether it was written in a way that is suited to being released in its entirety, but that is something we can look at.